Experimental Study of Axial Slit Wall Effect on Taylor-Couette Flow

The effect of the axial slit of outer cylinder on Taylor-Couette flow was experimentally investigated. The radius ratio and aspect ratio of the model was 0.825 and 48, respectively. The depth of slits was 5mm and total 18 slits were azimuthally located along the inner wall of outer cylinder. We used PIV method to measure the flow field and applied refractive index matching method to resolve the image distortion due to the complex model geometry. The results showed the axial slit did not affect the transition from laminar Couette flow to Taylor vortex. The effect of slit wall appeared when the Reynolds number is larger than Re=143 and the slit model shows the transition to turbulent Taylor vortex flow above Re=143.