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The seminal study by G. I. Taylor (1923) has inspired generations of work in exploring and characterizing Taylor–Couette (TC) flow instabilities and laid the foundation for research of complex fluid systems requiring a controlled hydrodynamic environment. Here, TC flow with radial fluid injection is used to study the mixing dynamics of complex oil-in-water emulsions. Concentrated emulsion simulating oily bilgewater is radially injected into the annulus between rotating inner and outer cylinders, and the emulsion is allowed to disperse through the flow field. The resultant mixing dynamics are investigated, and effective intermixing coefficients are calculated through measured changes in the intensity of light reflected by the emulsion droplets in fresh and salty water. The impacts of the flow field and mixing conditions on the emulsion stability are tracked via changes in droplet size distribution (DSD), and the use of emulsified droplets as tracer particles is discussed in terms of changes in the dispersive Péclet, Capillary and Weber numbers. For oily wastewater systems, the formation of larger droplets is known to yield better separation during a water treatment process, and the final DSD observed here is found to be tunable based on salt concentration, observation time and mixing flow state in the TC cell. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Taylor–Couette and related flows on the centennial of Taylor’s seminalPhilosophical Transactionspaper (part 2)’.
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Exploring the origin of turbulent Taylor rolls
Since Taylor’s seminal paper, the existence of large-scale quasi-axisymmetric structures has been a matter of interest when studying Taylor–Couette flow. In this article, we probe their formation in the highly turbulent regime by conducting a series of numerical simulations at a fixed Reynolds number Re s = 3.6 × 10 4 while varying the Coriolis parameter to analyse the flow characteristics as the structures arise and dissipate. We show how the Coriolis force induces a one-way coupling between the radial and azimuthal velocity fields inside the boundary layer, but in the bulk, there is a two-way coupling that causes competing effects. We discuss how this complicates the analogy of narrow-gap Taylor–Couette to other convective flows. We then compare these statistics with a similar shear flow without no-slip boundary layers, showing how this double coupling causes very different effects. We finish by reflecting on the possible origins of turbulent Taylor rolls. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Taylor–Couette and related flows on the centennial of Taylor’s seminal Philosophical Transactions paper (part 1)’.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1934121
- PAR ID:
- 10462023
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Volume:
- 381
- Issue:
- 2243
- ISSN:
- 1364-503X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0130
