Experimental Study on Oscillatory Couette-Taylor Flows Behaviour

Author(s):  
Emna Berrich ◽  
Fethi Aloui ◽  
Jack Legrand

In the simplest and original case of study of the Taylor–Couette TC problems, the fluid is contained between a fixed outer cylinder and a concentric inner cylinder which rotates at constant angular velocity. Much of the works done has been concerned on steady rotating cylinder(s) i.e. rotating cylinders with constant velocity and the various transitions that take place as the cylinder(s) velocity (ies) is (are) steadily increased. On this work, we concentrated our attention in the case in which the inner cylinder velocity is not constant, but oscillates harmonically (in time) clockwise and counter-clockwise while the outer cylinder is maintained fixed. Our aim is to attempt to answer the question if the modulation makes the flow more or less stable with respect to the vortices apparition than in the steady case. If the modulation amplitude is large enough to destabilise the circular Couette flow, two classes of axisymmetric Taylor vortex flow are possible: reversing Taylor Vortex Flow (RTVF) and Non-Reversing Taylor Vortex Flow (NRTVF) (Youd et al., 2003; Lopez and Marques, 2002). Our work presents an experimental investigation of the effect of oscillatory Couette-Taylor flow, i.e. both the oscillation frequency and amplitude on the apparition of RTVF and NRTVF by analysing the instantaneous and local mass transfer and wall shear rates evolutions, i.e. the impact of vortices at wall. The vortices may manifest themselves by the presence of time-oscillations of mass transfer and wall shear rates, this generally corresponds to an instability apparition even for steady rotating cylinder. On laminar CT flow, the time-evolution of wall shear rate is linear. It may be presented as a linear function of the angular velocity, i.e. the evolution is steady even if the angular velocity is not steady. At a “critical” frequency and amplitude, the laminar CT flow is disturbed and Taylor vortices appear. Comparing to a steady velocity case, oscillatory flow accelerate the instability apparition, i.e. the critical Taylor number corresponds to the transition is smaller than that of the steady case. For high oscillation amplitudes of the inner cylinder rotation, the mass transfer time-evolution has a sinusoidal evolution with non equal oscillation amplitudes. If the oscillation amplitude is large enough, it can destabilize the laminar Couette flow, Taylor vortices appears. The vortices direction can be deduced from the sign of the instantaneous wall shear rate time evolution.

1979 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Barcilon ◽  
J. Brindley ◽  
M. Lessen ◽  
F. R. Mobbs

We report on a set of turbulent flow experiments of the Taylor type in which the fluid is contained between a rotating inner circular cylinder and a fixed concentric outer cylinder, focusing our attention on very large Taylor number values, i.e. \[ 10^3 \leqslant T/T_c \leqslant 10^5, \] where Tc is the critical value of the Taylor number T for onset of Taylor vortices. At such large values of T, the turbulent vortex flow structure is similar to the one observed when T – Tc is small and this structure is apparently insensitive to further increases in T. These flows are characterized by two widely separated length scales: the scale of the gap width which characterizes the Taylor vortex flow and a much smaller scale which is made visible by streaks in the form of a ‘herring-bone’-like pattern visible at the walls. These are conjectured to be Görtler vortices which arise as a result of centrifugal instability in the wall boundary layers. Ideas of marginal instability by which we postulate that both the Taylor and Görtler vortex structures are marginally unstable on their own scale seem to provide good quantitative agreement between predicted and observed Görtler vortex spacings.


1974 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. DiPrima ◽  
J. T. Stuart

At sufficiently high operating speeds in lightly loaded journal bearings the basic laminar flow will be unstable. The instability leads to a new steady secondary motion of ring vortices around the cylinders with a regular periodicity in the axial direction and a strength that depends on the azimuthial position (Taylor vortices). Very recently published work on the basic flow and the stability of the basic flow between eccentric circular cylinders with the inner cylinder rotating is summarized so as to provide a unified description. A procedure for calculating the Taylor-vortex flow is developed, a comparison with observed properties of the flow field is made, and formulas for the load and torque are given.


Author(s):  
H. Furukawa ◽  
M. Hanaki ◽  
T. Watanabe

In concentrically rotating double cylinders consisting of a stationary outer cylinder and a rotating inner cylinder, Taylor vortex flow appears. Taylor vortex flow occurs in journal bearings, various fluid machineries, containers for chemical reaction, and other rotating components. Therefore, the analysis of the flow structure of Taylor vortex flow is highly effective for its control. The main parameters that determine the modes of Taylor vortex flow of a finite length are the aspect ratio Γ, Reynolds number Re. Γ is defined as the ratio of the cylinder length to the gap length between cylinders, and Re is determined on the basis of the angular speed of the inner cylinder. Γ was set to be 3.2, 4.8 and 6.8, and Re to be values in the range from 100 to 1000 at intervals of 100. Thus far, a large number of studies on Taylor vortex flow have been carried out; however, the effects of the differences in initial conditions have not yet been sufficiently clarified. In this study, we changed the initial flow field between the inner and outer cylinders in a numerical analysis, and examined the resulting changes in the mode formation and bifurcation processes. In this study, the initial speed distribution factor α was defined to be a function of the initial flow field and set to be 1.0, 0.999, 0.9 and 0.8 for the calculation. As a result, a difference was observed in the final mode depending on the difference in α for each Γ. From this finding, non-uniqueness, which is a major characteristic of Taylor vortex flow, was confirmed. However, no regularities regarding the difference in mode formation were found and the tendency of the mode formation process was not specified. Moreover, the processes of developing the vortex resulting in different final modes were monitored over time by visual observation. Similar flow behaviors were initially observed after the start of the calculation. Then, a bifurcation point, at which the flow changed to a mode depending on α, was observed, and finally the flow became steady. In addition, there was also a difference in the time taken for the flow to reach the steady state. These findings are based on only visual observation. Accordingly, a more detailed analysis at each lattice point and a comparison of physical quantities, such as kinetic energy and enstrophy, will be our future tasks.


Author(s):  
Vale´rie Lepiller ◽  
Jong-Yeon Hwang ◽  
Arnaud Prigent ◽  
Kyung-Soo Yang ◽  
Innocent Mutabazi

Both experimental and numerical studies have shown that the Taylor vortices are destabilized by a weak radial temperature gradient and transit to spiral vortices with a small inclination. For a large radial temperature gradient, from Taylor vortices emerges a disordered pattern with some windows of spiral vortices. Spatio-temporal characteristics of resulting pattern are presented.


1973 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Burkhalter ◽  
E. L. Koschmieder

Experiments studying steady supercritical Taylor vortex flow have been made using pairs of long cylinders with two different radius ratios, three fluids of different viscosities and three different end boundaries for the fluid column. The emphasis in these experiments is on the determination of the wavelength of the Taylor vortices and the size of the end rings. The wavelength which one measures in a finite cylinder differs from the wavelengths found theoretically for infinitely long cylinders. Provided that the end effects were properly taken into account, the wavelength of singly periodic Taylor vortices in aninfinitely long cylinder was found to remain constant between T/Tc = 1 and T/Tc, ≈ 80 in experiments with radius ratios η = 0·505 and η = 0·727. Further studies of Taylor vortex flow at very high Taylor numbers, where the vortices are either doubly periodic or truly turbulent, showed that the wavelength increases under these conditions. However, the observed wavelengths were no longer unique but distributed statistically around a wavelength larger than the critical wavelength.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Wang ◽  
C. Shu ◽  
Y. T. Chew

Abstract In this study, the GDQ method was used to simulate a specific flow regime, Taylor vortex flow, of the motion of fluids between two concentric cylinders with rotating inner cylinder and stationary outer cylinder. An approach combining the SIMPLE strategy and GDQ discretization based on non-staggered mesh was proposed to solve the time-dependent, three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in primitive variable form. The numerical solution obtained has the accuracy of second-order in temporal discretization and high-order in spatial discretization. Also, this numerical code may allow the direct numerical simulations for the various regimes of Couette-Taylor flow problem. The performance of this approach was studied through a test case of Taylor vortex flow. The reported numerical results were compared with those from others. For this approach, accurate numerical results can be obtained by using fewer grid points compared with low-order methods. As a consequence, the computational effort can be greatly reduced.


1979 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Simmers ◽  
J. E. R. Coney

Results are presented of an investigation into a developing, combined axial and rotational flow in an annular gap formed by a stationary outer cylinder and a rotatable inner cylinder for an annulus radius ratio of 0–8 and an axial Reynolds number of 1200. These results show that, in the Taylor vortex flow régime, the development length decreases with the parameter Re2a/Ta and that the greatest development length in an annular gap, for a given axial Reynolds number, occurs when the Taylor number is near to its critical value. Consideration of isothermal heat transfer through the outer wall of the annular gap suggests that, in the development of the flow, the Nusselt number rises to a high value before falling to a constant value, at full development.


1978 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. R. Coney ◽  
J. Atkinson

Results are presented in dimensionless form as obtained in an experimental study of the resultant radial force variation in an eccentric annulus formed by a stationary outer cylinder and a rotating inner cylinder, through which an axial flow of oil may be pumped. Two eccentricity ratios, 0.5 and 0.9, and three axial Reynolds numbers for the flow of the fluid in the annulus, 0, 25, and 50, are considered. It is shown that the onset of Taylor vortex flow has a marked effect on the magnitude and direction of the resultant radial force. The resultant forces and attitude angles are compared with those derived from Sommerfeld’s journal bearing theory. Comparisons are also made between critical Taylor numbers for the present investigation and those available in the literature.


Author(s):  
Sang-Hyuk Lee ◽  
Hyoung-Bum Kim

Taylor-Couette flow has been studied extensively and lots of variables which affect the flow instability are being reported. The wall geometry effect of Taylor-Couette flow, however, has been less studied. In this study, we investigated the effect of axial slit of outer cylinder. This kind of configuration can be easily seen in rotating machinery. Particle image velocimetry method was used to measure the velocity fields in longitudinal and latitudinal planes. The index matching method was used to avoid light refraction. The velocity fields between the slit and plain model which has the smooth wall were compared. From the experiments, both models have the same flow mode below Re = 143. The transition from circular Couette flow to plain Taylor vortex flow began at Re = 103, and the next transition to wavy vortex flow occurred at 124. The effect of slit wall appeared when the Reynolds number is larger than Re = 143. Above this Reynolds number, there was no stable mode and plain and wavy Taylor vortex flow randomly appeared.


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