An experimental investigation of Taylor vortex flow between conical cylinders

Abstract

Viscous flows and instabilities between conical cylinders are described which result from rotating an inner cone while the outer one is at rest. Both cones have the same apex angle resulting in a constant width of the gap between the bodies. The laminar basic flow is tree-dimensional. Owing to different centrifugal forces on the cone's surface one obtains regions of sub- and supercritical flows in the annulus. The Taylor vortices generated can be steady or unsteady, so that toroidal or helical vortices travel through the closed system, depending on different initial and boundary conditions. Furthermore, combinations of steady toroidal and unsteady helical vortices are possible. The influence of the governing parameters, like acceleration rate, gap width, end plates and so on is discussed. A comparison with available calculations is made.