Effect of a constant radial temperature gradient on a Taylor-Couette flow with axial wall slits

Abstract

The flow between two concentric cylinders with the inner cylinder rotating with an imposed radial temperature gradient was studied using the digital particle image velocimetry method. Four models of a stationary outer cylinder without and with different numbers of slits (6, 9 and 18) were used. The Grashof number in this study was 1000. The results showed clearly that the buoyant force due to the temperature gradient caused the helical flow; this flow occurred when the Richardson number was larger than 0.0045. The constant temperature gradient considered in this research has little effect on the transition to a turbulent Taylor vortex flow in all models.