Experimental investigation of mixing and axial dispersion in Taylor–Couette flow patterns

The flow and mixing in a Taylor–Couette device have been characterized by means of simultaneous particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements. Concentration of a passive tracer measurements was used to investigate mixing efficiency for different flow patterns (from steady Taylor vortex flow to modulated wavy vortex flow, MWVF). Taylor–Couette flow is known to evolve toward turbulence through a sequence of flow instabilities. Macroscopic quantities, such as axial dispersion and mixing index, are extremely sensitive to internal flow structures. PLIF measurements show clear evidences of different transport mechanisms including intravortex mixing and tracer fluxes through neighboring vortices. Under WVF and MWVF regimes, intravortex mixing is controlled by chaotic advection, due to the 3D nature of the flow, while intervortex transport occurs due to the presence of waves between neighboring vortices. The combination of these two mechanisms results in enhanced axial dispersion. We show that hysteresis may occur between consecutive regimes depending on flow history, and this may have a significant effect on mixing for a given Reynolds number.