Particle motion in Taylor-Couette flow experiments

Abstract

This work investigates particle transportation Taylor-Couette Flow (TCF) experiments. We designed and built up the experimental set-up and then did two groups of experiments (S1 and S2). Small radius ratio () experiments (S1) focuses on the settling time t_set of a particle, which increases when Reynolds number (R) increases. The settling time within Taylor-Couette flow is larger than that in the still water due to horizontal motion of particle. To further understand the underlying flow mechanism of this increased t_set, we designed the large experiments (S2), which identify Taylor vortices (TVF) and spiral vortices (SPI) that trap the particle and thus increase t_set. In addition, linear stability analysis also predicts the wavelength of flow structures in the same order of experimental observation, although some deviation exists.