Experimental study on radial temperature gradient effect of a Taylor-Couette flow with axial wall slits

The flow between two concentric cylinders with the inner cylinder rotating and an imposed radial temperature gradient was studied using a digital particle image velocimetry method. The flow transition process under both a positive and negative temperature gradient with four different models of a stationary outer cylinder without and with differing numbers of slits (6, 9 and 18) was studied. The results showed that the buoyant force due to the temperature gradient clearly generated a helical flow when the rotating Reynolds number was small. For the plain and 6-slit models, the transition to a turbulent Taylor vortex flow was not affected by the temperature gradient considered in this study. In addition, the transition process of a larger number of slits (9-, 18-slit models) was accelerated due to the slit wall. As the temperature gradient became larger, the critical Reynolds number of the transition process decreased.