Experimental and numerical investigation on mixing and axial dispersion in Taylor-Couette flow patterns

► Axial mixing is investigated for Taylor-Couette flow in wavy flow regimes. ► Direct numerical simulations are performed and complemented by flow visualizations. ► Axial dispersion values, derived from particles tracking in DNS, are compared to coloured-dye RTD measurements. ► The influence of local flow patterns on the lumped Dax coefficient is discussed.