PHYSICS OF FLUIDS

VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1

JANUARY 2004

A note on power-law scaling in a TaylorCouette ow

T. T. Lim and K. S. Tan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 129789

Received 5 August 2003; accepted 14 October 2003; published online 4 December 2003 Recent studies Lathrop et al., Phys. Rev. A 46, 6390 1992 ; Lewis et al., Phys. Rev. E 59, 5457 1999 on TaylorCouette ow, where the inner cylinder is rotating and the outer one is at rest, show that, despite earlier predictions Wendt, Ing. Arch. 4, 557 1933 ; Tong et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2780 1990 , the non-dimensional torque (G T/ 2 L) does not follow a xed power-law scaling i.e., G Re , where is a constant value for 800 Re 1.23 106 . Here, we perform simultaneous ow visualization and high precision torque measurements of the same ow conguration using a Haake RS-75 Rheometer to establish if this is also true in the lower Reynolds number range (Re 800). Results show that, although varies with the Reynolds number, it can be 1 for Re/Rec 1 and 1.5 for 1.5 approximated reasonably well with a constant value Re/Rec 6.32. The latter nding is in good agreement with that of Wendt Ing. Arch. 4, 557 1933 . A possible explanation for the differences with the results of earlier studies is provided in this paper. 2004 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.1631417

I. INTRODUCTION

tted empirical expressions for the non-dimensional torque (G T/ 2 L) to

3/2

TaylorCouette ow is a classical problem in uid mechanics, and has been the subject of extensive theoretical and experimental investigations since the pioneering work of Taylor1 in 1923. Over the years, numerous papers have been published on the subject, and interested readers should refer to comprehensive reviews by DiPrima and Swinney,2 Chossat and Iooss,3 and more recently by Koschmieder.4 Although our understanding of the ow phenomenon has improved over the years, many issues remain unresolved. A well-known characteristic of the TaylorCouette ow is that when the Reynolds number increases, the ow within the annulus transforms from a circular Couette owTaylor vortex owwavy vortex owmodulated wavy vortex owturbulent Taylor vortex ow. In 1965, Coles5 discovered the non-uniqueness of wavy vortex ow, and found that there were as many as 20 to 25 different ow states with distinct axial wavelength and/or azimuthal wavelength for a given Reynolds number. He noted that the ow states depended not only on the initial conditions, but also on the manner in which the inner cylinder was accelerated to the nal speed. This nding was supported by the subsequent studies of Snyder,6 Burkhalter and Koschmieder,7 Koschmieder,8 Park et al.,9 and more recently by Lim et al.10 see also the numerical studies of Antonijoan and Sanchez11 and Rigopoulos et al.12 . Besides ow visualization, torque measurements have also been performed to investigate the characteristics of TaylorCouette ow. Notable workers in this area include Wendt,13 Taylor,14 Donnelly,15 Donnelly and Simon,16 Nakabayashi et al.,17 Lathrop et al.18 and more recently Lewis and Swinney.19 In 1933, Wendt13 conducted detailed torque mea0.680, 0.850, surements using three radius ratios i.e., 0.935 over the Reynolds number range of 50 to 105 , and
1070-6631/2004/16(1)/140/5/$22.00 140

G 1.45

1
3/2

1.5 7/4 Re

for 4 102 Re 104 , and G 0.23 1

1.7 7/4 Re

for 104 Re 105 . Tong et al.20 subsequently showed that G Re1.8 over a range of 4 104 Re 4 105 for 0.448. However, more recent experimental studies by Lathrop et al.18 and Lewis and Swinney19 using high precision torque measurements for Reynolds number of 800 Re 1.23 106 show that there is no Reynolds number region which can be described by G Re where is a constant value. Their nding raises an inevitable question as to whether this is also true in the lower Reynolds number range. To answer this question, we performed high precision torque measurements using a Haake RS75 Rheometer for Re 800. Although numerous researchers have conducted torque measurements in this Reynolds number range before, insufcient experimental data prevented accurate analysis of the scaling exponent in G Re .
II. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE

Figure 1 shows a schematic drawing of the experimental facility used in the present investigation. The heart of the apparatus is a Haake RS 75 Rheometer, a high precision instrument often used to characterize rheological properties of Newtonian and non-Newtonian uids. Its technical specications as provided by the manufacturer are shown in Table I. The outer cylinder was fabricated from a solid Plexiglas bar, with its bottom tted with a plug that matched the
2004 American Institute of Physics

Phys. Fluids, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2004

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FIG. 1. Schematics of the experimental setup using a Haake Rheometer. R 1 /R 2 0.892; d R 2 R 1 16.81 0.01 mm; R 2 18.84 0.01 mm; R 1 2.03 mm, L/(R 2 R 1 ) 20 to 39.

mounting hole of the movable support of the rheometer. Located at the center and ush with the upper surface of the plug was a miniature bearing, which provided support for the inner cylinder. The outer cylinder was fastened to the movable support to prevent any rotation during the experiment. The inner cylinder was fabricated from a solid aluminum bar, with one of its ends terminated in a 10-mm-diam shaft 38 mm long with a cone-shape tting, which enabled it to be connected rigidly to the spindle of the rheometer. The spindle, which was supported by an air bearing to provide almost frictionless motion, was powered by a dc motor. To ensure uniform annulus gap size, the other end of the inner cylinder was reduced to a 1.86-mm-diam. stud which matched the miniature bearing discussed earlier. When fully assembled, the inner cylinder rotates concentrically with minimal friction. For this particular rheometer, the torque on the inner cylinder was measured based on the current going into the motor, and the calibration curve was obtained by the manufacturer by establishing the dependence of the applied current and the resulting torque. As for the rotational speed, it was measured optically using a line disk connected to the motor shaft. The disk generated 1 million pulses per rotation, and measured rotational speed with high degree of accuracy.

TABLE I. Technical specications of a Haake RS75 Rheometer provided by the manufacturer. Min torque mNm 5 10
3

In the present study, a radius ratio of 0.892 was considered with the aspect ratio of 20, 30, and 39, and detailed dimensions of the cylinders are shown in the caption of Fig. 1. The working solution was a glycerine/water mixture 40% of glycerine and 60% of water by weight . For ow visualization purposes, 10% concentration of Kalliroscope AQ-100 reective akes21 was mixed with the working solution before it was introduced into the annulus through a small opening at the bottom of the cylinder. This technique of introducing the solution has two advantages; rst, it prevented any air bubbles from getting trapped underneath the inner cylinder which may lead to erroneous results, and second, it allowed an accurate control of the height of the uid column, or aspect ratio. Also, tests conducted using 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, and 15% by volume of Kalliroscope showed that the solution was still Newtonian. This nding is consistent with the results of Prigent and Dauchot,22 who used as high as 25% by volume of Kalliroscope in their investigation of TaylorCouette ow. The decision to use 10% by volume of Kalliroscope here was dictated by the requirement to produce good quality ow images. The dynamic viscosity of the overall mixture i.e., glycerine/water/Kalliroscope was determined by the same rheometer using the sensor recommended by the manufacturer, and the density was measured by a density bottle of a known volume. These measurements yielded a dynamic visof 2.61 10 3 kg/ms over the range of Reynolds cosity of 1040 kg/m3 , thus number investigated, and a density giving a kinematic viscosity of 2.50 10 6 m2 /s, which is about 2.5 times higher than that for water. The two key parameters in the present investigation are the Reynolds number Re and the aspect ratio , which are L/d, respectively, where dened as Re R1 d/ , and is in rad/s, is the kinematic viscosity, and the rest of the symbols are shown in Fig. 1. The rotating speed of the inner cylinder was controlled by the software provided by the manufacturer through the dc motor discussed earlier, and this allowed the inner cylinder to be accelerated at a mean value of d Re/dt 0.50 s 1 from rest up to the maximum Reynolds number of about 800. During the run, the torque values were recorded by the rheometer at a regular interval as the ow changed its state from circular Couette ow (CCF)Taylor vortex ow (TVF)wavy vortex ow WVF . Concurrent with the torque measurement, ow images were captured using a CCD video camera and a VCR equipped with a timecode card for subsequent analysis. The data collected by the rheometer, in addition to the torque values, included the angular velocity of the inner cylinder and the time elapsed after the start of the experiment. The latter quantity was crucial as it enabled us to relate changes in the torque measurements with changes in the ow state. A total of 100 data points were collected during each run, and that for each aspect ratio, the experiment was repeated three times to ensure repeatability of the results. All experiments were conducted in an airconditioned room with a temperature of about 25 C.
III. RESULTS

Max torque mNm 100

Min speed rpm 0.1

Max speed rpm 600

Strain resolution rad 6 10

6

Before discussing the results, there are a number of issues about the present experimental setup that we would like

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FIG. 2. Torque vs Reynolds number curves for 0.892. 20, 30, 39. Note that the critical Reynolds number (Rec) 123.39. FIG. 3. Local exponent for the non-dimensional torque (log10 G)/ (log10 Re) vs Re/Rec for 39. They are determined from torque measurements using a linear least-squares technique.

to clarify. First, the upper surface of the uid was free, which was ideal for torque measurements. However, this arrangement introduced different boundary conditions on top and bottom of the uid column, which might cause unequal ows on top and bottom of the uid as can be seen in the ow visualization pictures in Fig. 4. Second, the limitation of the rheometer restricts the maximum Reynolds number to approximately 800 only. Third, the torque values were acquired while the inner cylinder was accelerating at a mean value of d Re/dt 0.50 s 1 to the maximum Reynolds number. This was in sharp contrast to the earlier studies13,18,19 where torque values were measured independently for each Reynolds number. Alternatively, the acceleration can be expressed non-dimensionally as d Re/dt*, where t * is a nondimension time dened as t /d 2 , keeping in mind that d 2 / is the radial diffusion time. Here, d Re/dt* 0.824. Previous study by Xiao et al.23 has shown that for a radius ratio of 0.8936 similar to one used here , as long as d Re/dt* 2247 and Re/Rec 10, the effect of acceleration on the axial wavelength and wave amplitude of the wavy vortex ow is negligible. Lastly, the rheometer measured the total torque values of the system, which included the contribution from the bearing and from the narrow gap between the bottom of the inner and outer cylinders. Detailed analysis of the torque per unit length based on the results of 39 alone, and on the difference in results between 39 and 15 showed that these contributions accounted for about 1.5% of the total torque at Re 600, 2.8% at Re 400, and 6% at Re 200. No attempt was made to eliminate these contributions from the actual torque measurements, as this might lead to excessive noise during numerical differentiation of the data. To ascertain proper functioning of the apparatus, the critical Reynolds number (Rec) of the ow was checked with the previously published data. Here, Rec was obtained by identifying the rotation speed at which the slope of the torque versus the rotational speed curve changed abruptly, and this speed was found to be 9.04 .02 rad/s. Accordingly, Rec is about 123.39, which is in good agreement with the published data.

Figure 2 displays the torque versus Reynolds number results for the aspect ratios of 20, 30, and 39. It can be seen that although the global torque values generally increased with the Reynolds number for all the aspect ratios, they did not do so monotonically. Close examination of the results show that at some Reynolds numbers for example, see locations A, B, and C in Fig. 2 , there are small reductions in the torque values before the curves continue their upward trend with the Reynolds number. At rst, these kinks were thought to be due to spurious errors in the measurements, but when repeated runs revealed the same kinks, we decided to take a closer look at the video images which were captured at the same time. Unexpectedly, these kinks were found to correspond to instances when wavy vortex ow underwent transformation, which resulted in a reduction in the number of Taylor cells, as will be discussed later using Fig. 4. In Fig. 3, the variation of the exponent in G Re ) versus the Reynolds number for the case of 39 is shown. Here, G is a non-dimensional torque dened by G 39 are chosen for analyT/ 2 L. Note that the data of sis, because the torque values are signicantly higher than those in the lower aspect ratio cases. To determine , the mean values of the non-dimensional torque averaged over three repeated runs were rst plotted against the Reynolds number in a loglog scale. And is then obtained by nding the local slope, (R) (log10 G)/ (log10 R). A linear leastsquares technique similar to that employed by Lathrop et al.18 was used to compute the slopes around six points spaced log10 Re 0.1 apart, giving a window of log10 Re 0.5 wide. A sliding window with an 83% overlap with the previous window was used for the analysis. It can be seen from Fig. 3 that although varies with the Reynolds number, G can be empirically tted with G Re1.0 for Re/Rec 1.0 and with G Re1.5 for 1.5 Re/Rec 6.32. The latter nding is in good agreement with that of Wendt.13 It is of interest to note that during the ow transformation, where the the number of Taylor cells was reduced, there was a noticeable decrease in the values. Pictures showing variations in the number of Taylor vortices with the Reynolds

Phys. Fluids, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2004

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143

FIG. 4. Flow images of Taylor vortices with increasing Reynolds number, 39. Each picture corresponds to the location identied in Fig. 3. N is the total number of Taylor vortices, and is the average axial wavelength given by 2L/Nd, where L height of uid column, and d is the gap size between two cylinders.

number are depicted in Fig. 4, where the label identifying each picture corresponds to the same label indicating the location in Fig. 3. It is also of interest to note that the difference in the boundary conditions on top and bottom of the uid column had caused unequal Taylor cells to be generated on top and bottom of the uid as can be seen in Fig. 4 a and others. When performing numerical simulation see also Lathrop et al.18 , we are mindful of the fact that it can lead to a substantial increase in the noise level in any signal, and this could explain the spike in a couple of values above 2.0 soon after the critical Reynolds number. But, the fact that 1 for Re/Rec 1 provides a check on the accuracy of the present results since the present setup meets the narrow gap criterium in Taylors analysis which means that torque is proportional to the Reynolds number before the onset of ow 1 instability provided d 2 (R 1 R 2 ). To show the effect of the aspect ratio, G is plotted against Re/Rec for all the aspect ratios in Fig. 5 a . The fact that the three sets of data collapse on a single curve indicates that the effect of the aspect ratio is insignicant. The slight scatter in the data at the lower end of the Reynolds number for 20 and 30 could be due to the lower measured torque values as a result of a reduction in the height of the uid column, and a relatively higher contribution from the bearing and the narrow gap at the bottom of the cylinder. An alternative way of dening non-dimensional torque 2 4 T/ R 1 L, a plot of it versus Re/Rec for the three is G

aspect ratios is shown in Fig. 5 b . Here, the data can be empirically tted with G Re 1 for Re/Rec 1, and G 0.6 Re for 2.0 Re/Rec 6.32, except for a slight scatter in the data in the lower end of the Reynolds number due to the reason given above. The above nding raises the question as to why Lathrop et al.18 and Lewis and Swinney19 did not obtain a xed power-law scaling. One possible explanation is provided here. In their experiments, torque values were measured for a predetermined number of vortices, namely eight-vortex and ten-vortex states in the region Re 1.75 104 . They accomplished this by rapid acceleration and deceleration of the inner cylinder to achieve the required state. In the present study, no attempt was made to control the total number of Taylor vortices in the annulus. In fact, Fig. 4 clearly shows that during ow transformation, the number of Taylor vortices at one Reynolds number may differ from that at another Reynolds number. The fact that our result is in good agreement with that of Wendt13 i.e., G Re1.5) suggests that the Taylor vortices in Wendts experiment may have undergone similar transformations. This may be one reason why the results of Lathrop et al.18 and Lewis and Swinney19 are different from our experiments and those of Wendt,13 and why the scaling for the eight-vortex state is different from that for the ten-vortex state in the experiment of Lathrop et al.18

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dimensional torque (G) scales approximately with Re1.0 for Re/Rec 1, and with Re1.5 for 1.5 Re/Rec 6.32. The latter result is in good agreement with that of Wendt. Alternatively, G scales approximately with Re 1 for Re/Rec 1 and with Re 0.6 for 2.0 Re/Rec 6.32. Based on the present and the earlier studies, it appears that the scaling in a TaylorCouette ow is very much dependent on the manner in which the ow is generated.
ACKNOWLEGMENT

The authors would like to thank S. Ismail for his assistance in analyzing some of the experimental data.
G. I. Taylor, Stability of a viscous uid contained between rotating cylinders, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 223, 289 1923 . 2 R. C. DiPrima and H. L. Swinney, Instability and transition in ow between concentric rotating cylinders, in Hydrodynamic Instabilities and the Transition to Turbulence, 2nd ed., edited by H. L. Swinney and J. P. Gollub, Topics in Applied Physics Vol. 45 Springer, Berlin, 1985 , p. 139. 3 P. Chossat and G. Iooss, The CouetteTaylor Problem Springer, Berlin, 1992 . 4 E. L. Koschmieder, Taylor vortex ow, in Benard Cells and Taylor Vortices Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993 . 5 D. Coles, Transition in circular Couette ow, J. Fluid Mech. 21, 385 1965 . 6 H. A. Snyder, Wavenumber selection at nite amplitude in rotating Couette ow, J. Fluid Mech. 35, 273 1969 . 7 J. E. Burkhalter and E. L. Koschmieder, Steady supercritical Taylor vortices after sudden starts, Phys. Fluids 17, 1929 1974 . 8 E. L. Koschmieder, Turbulent Taylor vortex ow, J. Fluid Mech. 93, 515 1979 . 9 K. Park, G. L. Crawford, and R. J. Donnelly, Characteristic lengths in the wavy vortex state of Taylor vortex ow, Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 1352 1983 . 10 T. T. Lim, Y. T. Chew, and Q. Xiao, A new ow regime in a Taylor Couette ow, Phys. Fluids 10, 3233 1998 . 11 J. Antonijoan and J. Sanchez, On stable Taylor vortices above the transition to wavy vortices, Phys. Fluids 14, 1661 2002 . 12 J. Rigopoulos, J. Sheridan, and M. C. Thompson, State selection in Taylor-vortex ow reached with an accelerated inner cylinder, J. Fluid Mech. 489, 79 2003 . 13 F. Wendt, Turbulente Stromungen zwischen zwei rotierenden konaxialen Zylindern, Ing. Arch. 4, 557 1933 . 14 G. I. Taylor, Fluid friction between rotating cylinders. I. Torque measurement, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 157, 546 1936 . 15 R. J. Donnelly, Experiments on the stability of viscous ow between rotating cylinders. I: Torque measurements, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 246, 321 1958 . 16 R. J. Donnelly and N. J. Simon, An empirical torque relation for supercritical ow between rotating cylinders, J. Fluid Mech. 7, 401 1960 . 17 K. Nakabayashi, Y. Yamada, and T. Kishimoto, Viscous frictional torque in the ow between two concentric rotating rough cylinders, J. Fluid Mech. 119, 409 1982 . 18 D. P. Lathrop, J. Fineberg, and H. L. Swinney, Transition to shear-driven turbulence in CouetteTaylor ow, Phys. Rev. A 46, 6390 1992 . 19 G. S. Lewis and H. L. Swinney, Velocity structure functions, scaling, and transitions in high-Reynolds-number CouetteTaylor ow, Phys. Rev. E 59, 5457 1999 . 20 P. Tong, W. J. Goldburg, J. S. Huang, and T. A. Witten, Anisotropy in turbulent drag reduction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2780 1990 . 21 P. Matisse and M. Gorman, Neutrally buoyant anisotropic particles for ow visualization, Phys. Fluids 27, 759 1984 . 22 A. Prigent and O. Dauchot, Visualization of a TaylorCouette ow avoiding parasitic reections, Phys. Fluids 12, 2688 2000 . 23 Q. Xiao, T. T. Lim, and Y. T. Chew, Effect of acceleration on the wavy Taylor vortex ow, Exp. Fluids 32, 639 2002 .
1

FIG. 5. a Plots of G vs Re/Rec : G Re1 for Re/Rec 1 and G Re1.5 for 1.5 Re/Rec 6.32. b Plots of G vs Re/Rec :G Re 1 for Re/Rec 1 and 20, 30, 39. G Re 0.6 for 2.0 Re/Rec 6.32.

IV. CONCLUSION

In this study, we have conducted simultaneous ow visualization and torque measurements to investigate the scaling-law in a TaylorCouette ow. The radius ratio of 0.892 was considered for a range of aspect ratios i.e., 20, 30, and 39 , and the results show that while the torque generally increases with the Reynolds number, it suffers a small reduction in value when there is a reduction in the number of Taylor vortices. Also, it is found that the non-