Buoyancy-driven instabilities and particle deposition in a Taylor-Couette apparatus

Abstract

The present paper aims at studying the particle trajectories and sedimentation inside Taylor-Couette buoyancydriven flows. The dynamical and thermal features of Taylor–Couette-flows inside a three-dimensional differentially heated cavity are investigated for Reynolds numbers Re ranging from 67.3 to 392.7 and Grashof numbers Gr between 764.4 ≤Gr≤3822.1. The results indicate a strong interaction between natural convection and the base Taylor-Couette flow due to rotation for a weak radial temperature gradient. A spectral analysis allows to identify different flow regimes. For discrete particle simulations, the Lagrangian Particle Tracking method is used to follow the particle trajectories inside the Taylor-Couette apparatus. Water droplets are considered as solid spherical particles with different diameters (10 ≤ Dp ≤ 35 μm). The time analysis of suspended and deposited particles along different walls shows that the rotation of the inner-cylinder coupled to the natural convection influences significantly the time and location of the particle deposition.