A numerical study of Taylor vortex flow in a finite length tapered annulus

Abstract

The transient evolution and steady state analysis of Taylor vortex flow in a tapered annulus was conducted by numerical experiments in the case where the inner cylinder was rotated and the outer one fixed. The gap between the cylinders was linearly tapered from a supercritical value at the upper base to the critical value at the lower base. The wavelength adjustment depended on the variation of Reynolds number in the spatially ramped gap. The axisymmetric conservative governing equations were solved by the use of an simplified marker and cell (SMAC) algorithm. A coordinate transformation function allowed us to numerically solve the problem in a rectangular computational domain. The results have shown that Taylor vortices growth was sensitive to the spatial ramp of the gap even with tapering angle values less than one degree. The interaction between the inflow and outflow boundaries could be clearly seen as the taper angle was increased. The investigation of the transient dynamics related to the flow system also revealed a characteristic dependence on the taper angle.