Particle motion in a Taylor vortex

Abstract

Here we present a study on the behavior of individual particles in the Taylor vortex. Two particle-fluid systems were tested: a cube with the edge length of 2 mm and the density of 0.13 g/cm3 (‘light particle’) in a working fluid of mineral oil (density of 0.86 g/cm3 and viscosity of 0.066 Pa.s); and a sphere with the diameter of 1.6 mm and the density of 2.2 g/cm3 (‘heavy particle’) in 90% glycerin/water (density of 1.23 g/cm3 and viscosity of 0.128 Pa.s). The Taylor–Couette device used for this study was featured with a short column (aspect ratio ≤ 6) and a wide gap (radius ratio ≤ 0.67). The interaction between the floating particle and Taylor vortices was investigated using a high speed camera and a particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. Moreover, computational fluid dynamics simulation was performed to calculate the liquid flow pattern and analyze the particle motion. Our results show that the particle behavior in the Taylor–Couette device is strongly dependent on the particle density and Reynolds number. With the increasing Reynolds number, four types of particle trajectories were sequentially identified from the light particle, including a circular trajectory on the surface of the inner cylinder, random shifting between the circular trajectory and oval orbit, a stable oval orbit in the annulus, and a circle along the vortex center. On the other hand, the heavy particle moves along a circular orbit and an oval orbit at low and high Reynolds numbers, respectively. Several unreported particle behaviors were also observed, such as the self-rotation of the particle when it moves along the above trajectories, the shifting axis of the oval orbit, etc. In addition, the PIV measurements show that the trapped particle can only influence the flow pattern locally around the particle. The study can help understand the particle behavior in a Taylor vortex better and therefore benefit applications of particle-laden Taylor vortex devices.