Flow transition of neutrally buoyant suspension between concentric cylinders

Abstract eng:
Experiments were performed to observe the flow transitions when a neutrally buoyant non-Brownian suspension of rigid particles in Newtonian fluid rotated in the annulus between two concentric cylinders. For pure fluid and very dilute suspensions, the flow transitioned from Taylor Vortex Flow (TVF) into Circular Couette Flow (CCF) as the Reynolds number (Re) of the inner cylinder was reduced. By contrast, for suspension concentrations between 5% and 20% particles, the flow transitioned from TVF into Spiral Vortex flow (SVF) and eventually into CCF. This indicates appearance of SVF under inner cylinder rotation only, a behaviour not seen for single-phase fluids. The initial transition was moved to a significantly lower Re, when the effective viscosity was considered. The transition values of Re corresponding to both TVF- SVF and SVF-CCF ware observed to reduce with increase in particle concentration indicating earlier onset of instability.

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