The Twente turbulent Taylor-Couette (T3C) facility: strongly turbulent (multiphase) flow between two independently rotating cylinders

Divergence of Critical Fluctuations on Approaching Catastrophic Phase Inversion in Turbulent Emulsions

Catastrophic phase inversion, the breakdown of a concentrated emulsion characterized by the most puzzling sudden feature, is crucial in numerous industrial applications. Here we combine well-controlled experiments and fully resolved numerical simulations to study the critical dynamics of catastrophic phase inversion in oil-water emulsions under turbulent flow as the phase-inversion volume fraction is approached. We reveal that the phase inversion is characterized by the critical power-law divergence of fluctuations in the global drag force. We determine the enhanced dynamical heterogeneity in the local droplet structures at approaching the phase inversion, and tightly connect it to the diverging drag fluctuations. Moreover, we show that near to the critical point the phase inversion is triggered as a stochastic process by large fluctuations at both large and small scales. Our findings pave the way to modeling the phase inversion process as an out-of-equilibrium critical-like phenomena.

Recent developments of turbulent emulsions in Taylor-Couette flow

Emulsions are common in many natural and industrial settings. Recently, much attention has been paid to understanding the dynamics of turbulent emulsions. This paper reviews some recent studies of emulsions in turbulent Taylor-Couette flow, mainly focusing on the statistics of the dispersed phase and the global momentum transport of the system. We first study the size distribution and the breakup mechanism of the dispersed droplets for turbulent emulsions with a low volume-fraction (dilute) of the dispersed phase. For systems with a high volume-fraction (dense) of the dispersed phase, we address the detailed response of the global transport (effective viscosity) of the turbulent emulsion and its connection to the droplet statistics. Finally, we will discuss catastrophic phase inversions, which can happen when the volume-fraction of the dispersed phase exceeds a critical value during dynamic emulsification. We end the manuscript with a summary and an outlook including some open questions for future research. 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)'.

Sodium chloride inhibits effective bubbly drag reduction in turbulent bubbly Taylor-Couette flows

Using the Taylor-Couette geometry we experimentally investigate the effect of salt on drag reduction caused by bubbles present in the flow. We combine torque measurements with optical high-speed imaging to relate the bubble size to the drag experienced by the flow. Previous studies have shown that a small percentage of air (4%) can lead to dramatic drag reduction (40%). In contrast to previous laboratory experiments, which mainly used fresh water, we will vary the salinity from that of fresh water to the average salinity of ocean water. We find that the drag reduction is increasingly more inhibited for increasing salt concentrations, going from 40% for fresh water to just 15% for sea water. Salts present in the working fluid inhibit coalescence events, resulting in smaller bubbles in the flow and, with that, a decrease in the drag reduction. Above a critical salinity, increasing the salinity has no further effect on the size of bubbles in the flow and thus the drag experienced by the flow. Our new findings demonstrate the importance of sodium chloride on the bubbly drag reduction mechanism, and will further challenge naval architects to implement promising air lubrication systems on marine vessels. 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)'.

Catastrophic Phase Inversion in High-Reynolds-Number Turbulent Taylor-Couette Flow

Emulsions are omnipresent in the food industry, health care, and chemical synthesis. In this Letter the dynamics of metastable oil-water emulsions in highly turbulent (10^{11}≤Ta≤3×10^{13}) Taylor-Couette flow, far from equilibrium, is investigated. By varying the oil-in-water void fraction, catastrophic phase inversion between oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions can be triggered, changing the morphology, including droplet sizes, and rheological properties of the mixture, dramatically. The manifestation of these different states is exemplified by combining global torque measurements and local in situ laser induced fluorescence microscopy imaging. Despite the turbulent state of the flow and the dynamic equilibrium of the oil-water mixture, the global torque response of the system is found to be as if the fluid were Newtonian, and the effective viscosity of the mixture was found to be several times bigger or smaller than either of its constituents.

A large thermal turbulent Taylor-Couette (THETACO) facility for investigation of turbulence induced by simultaneous action of rotation and radial temperature gradient

A thermal turbulent Taylor-Couette facility has been designed to investigate turbulent flows generated by differential rotation and radial temperature gradient. It consists of a cylindrical annulus with a rotating inner cylinder and a fixed outer cylinder. The electric heating system is installed inside the inner cylinder, and the annulus is immersed in a large cylindrical container filled with cooling fluid. Temperature regulators independently control the temperature of the inner surface of the inner cylinder and that of the cooling fluid. The facility allows us to reach values of the Reynolds number (Re ∼ 5 × 10⁵) and of the Rayleigh number (Ra ∼ 3 × 10⁶) for water as the working fluid. The facility provides torque measurements, a full optical access at the side and from the bottom for velocity measurements using particle image velocimetry (2D, stereoscopic, and tomographic). Temperature measurements in the flow can be performed by thermochromic liquid crystals or laser induced fluorescence.

V-ONSET (Vertical Octagonal Noncorrosive Stirred Energetic Turbulence): A vertical water tunnel with a large energy dissipation rate to study bubble/droplet deformation and breakup in strong turbulence

A vertical water tunnel facility has been constructed to study the dynamics of turbulent multiphase flow. The new system features several unique designs that allow us to study bubble deformation and breakup in strong turbulence: (i) The mean flow can be adjusted to balance the rising velocity of buoyant bubbles/droplets so that they can stay in the view area for an extended period of time. (ii) Turbulence is generated and controlled using a 3D-printed jet array that can fire 88 random high-speed momentum jets with the individual jet velocity of up to 12 m/s. This component allows us to attain turbulence with a high energy dissipation rate (≥0.1 m²/s³), which is orders-of-magnitude higher than most of the existing turbulent multiphase flow facilities. (iii) Turbulence generated in the test section is nearly homogeneous and isotropic, and the turbulent fluctuations are also decoupled from the mean flow. The resulting turbulence intensity can be varied between 20% and 80% with the speed of the mean flow at around 0.2 m/s. (iv) This system has an octagonal test section that allows six cameras to image and reconstruct the 3D shape of deforming bubbles/droplets in turbulence. The same set of cameras was also used for tracking tracers in the surrounding turbulent flow. Both the reconstruction and particle tracking were completed using our in-house codes that were parallelized to run on high-performance computing clusters efficiently.

Rough-wall turbulent Taylor-Couette flow: The effect of the rib height

In this study, we combine experiments and direct numerical simulations to investigate the effects of the height of transverse ribs at the walls on both global and local flow properties in turbulent Taylor-Couette flow. We create rib roughness by attaching up to 6 axial obstacles to the surfaces of the cylinders over an extensive range of rib heights, up to blockages of 25% of the gap width. In the asymptotic ultimate regime, where the transport is independent of viscosity, we emperically find that the prefactor of the [Formula: see text] scaling (corresponding to the drag coefficient [Formula: see text] being constant) scales with the number of ribs [Formula: see text] and by the rib height [Formula: see text]. The physical mechanism behind this is that the dominant contribution to the torque originates from the pressure forces acting on the rib which scale with the rib height. The measured scaling relation of [Formula: see text] is slightly smaller than the expected [Formula: see text] scaling, presumably because the ribs cannot be regarded as completely isolated but interact. In the counter-rotating regime with smooth walls, the momentum transport is increased by turbulent Taylor vortices. We find that also in the presence of transverse ribs these vortices persist. In the counter-rotating regime, even for large roughness heights, the momentum transport is enhanced by these vortices.

Torque scaling in small-gap Taylor-Couette flow with smooth or grooved wall

The torque in the Taylor-Couette flow for radius ratios η≥0.97, with smooth or grooved wall static outer cylinders, is studied experimentally, with the Reynolds number of the inner cylinder reaching up to Re_{i}=2×10^{5}, corresponding to the Taylor number up to Ta=5×10^{10}. The grooves are perpendicular to the mean flow, and similar to the structure of a submersible motor stator. It is found that the dimensionless torque G, at a given Re_{i} and η, is significantly greater for grooved cases than smooth cases. We compare our experimental torques for the smooth cases to the fit proposed by Wendt [F. Wendt, Ing.-Arch. 4, 577 (1993)10.1007/BF02084936] and the fit proposed by Bilgen and Boulos [E. Bilgen and R. Boulos, J Fluids Eng. 95, 122 (1973)10.1115/1.3446944], which shows both fits are outside their range for small gaps. Furthermore, an additional dimensionless torque (angular velocity flux) Nu_{ω} in the smooth cases exhibits an effective scaling of Nu_{ω}∼Ta^{0.39} in the ultimate regime, which occurs at a lower Taylor number, Ta≈3.5×10^{7}, than the well-explored η=0.714 case (at Ta≈3×10^{8}). The same effective scaling exponent, 0.39, is also evident in the grooved cases, but for η=0.97 and 0.985, there is a peak before this exponent appears.

Bubble Drag Reduction Requires Large Bubbles

In the maritime industry, the injection of air bubbles into the turbulent boundary layer under the ship hull is seen as one of the most promising techniques to reduce the overall fuel consumption. However, the exact mechanism behind bubble drag reduction is unknown. Here we show that bubble drag reduction in turbulent flow dramatically depends on the bubble size. By adding minute concentrations (6 ppm) of the surfactant Triton X-100 into otherwise completely unchanged strongly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow containing bubbles, we dramatically reduce the drag reduction from more than 40% to about 4%, corresponding to the trivial effect of the bubbles on the density and viscosity of the liquid. The reason for this striking behavior is that the addition of surfactants prevents bubble coalescence, leading to much smaller bubbles. Our result demonstrates that bubble deformability is crucial for bubble drag reduction in turbulent flow and opens the door for an optimization of the process.

The boiling Twente Taylor-Couette (BTTC) facility: Temperature controlled turbulent flow between independently rotating, coaxial cylinders

A new Taylor-Couette system has been designed and constructed with precise temperature control. Two concentric independently rotating cylinders are able to rotate at maximum rates of f(i) = ± 20 Hz for the inner cylinder and f(o) = ± 10 Hz for the outer cylinder. The inner cylinder has an outside radius of r(i) = 75 mm, and the outer cylinder has an inside radius of r(o) = 105 mm, resulting in a gap of d = 30 mm. The height of the gap is L = 549 mm, giving a volume of V = 9.3 L. The geometric parameters are η = r(i)/r(o) = 0.714 and Γ = L/d = 18.3. With water as working fluid at room temperature, the Reynolds numbers that can be achieved are Re(i) = ω(i)r(i)(r(o) - r(i))/ν = 2.8 × 10(5) and Re(o) = ω(o)r(o)(r(o) - r(i))/ν = 2 × 10(5) or a combined Reynolds number of up to Re = (ω(i)r(i) - ω(o)r(o))(r(o) - r(i))/ν = 4.8 × 10(5). If the working fluid is changed to the fluorinated liquid FC-3284 with kinematic viscosity 0.42 cSt, the combined Reynolds number can reach Re = 1.1 × 10(6). The apparatus features precise temperature control of the outer and inner cylinders separately and is fully optically accessible from the side and top. The new facility offers the possibility to accurately study the process of boiling inside a turbulent flow and its effect on the flow.

Multiple states in highly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow

The ubiquity of turbulent flows in nature and technology makes it of utmost importance to fundamentally understand turbulence. Kolmogorov's 1941 paradigm suggests that for strongly turbulent flows with many degrees of freedom and large fluctuations, there would only be one turbulent state as the large fluctuations would explore the entire higher dimensional phase space. Here we report the first conclusive evidence of multiple turbulent states for large Reynolds number, Re = O(10(6)) (Taylor number Ta = O(10(12))) Taylor-Couette flow in the regime of ultimate turbulence, by probing the phase space spanned by the rotation rates of the inner and outer cylinder. The manifestation of multiple turbulent states is exemplified by providing combined global torque- and local-velocity measurements. This result verifies the notion that bifurcations can occur in high-dimensional flows (that is, very large Re) and questions Kolmogorov's paradigm.

Statistics of turbulent fluctuations in counter-rotating Taylor-Couette flows

The statistics of velocity fluctuations of turbulent Taylor-Couette flow are examined. The rotation rates of the inner and outer cylinders are varied while keeping the Taylor number fixed to 1.49×10(12) [O(Re)=10(6)]. The azimuthal velocity component of the flow is measured using laser Doppler anemometry. For each experiment 5×10(6) data points are acquired and carefully analyzed. Using extended self-similarity [Benzi et al., Phys. Rev. E 48, R29 (1993)] the longitudinal structure function exponents are extracted and are found to weakly depend on the ratio of the rotation rates. For the case where only the inner cylinder rotates the results are in good agreement with results measured by Lewis and Swinney [Phys. Rev. E 59, 5457 (1999)] using hot-film anemometry. The power spectra show clear -5/3 scaling for the intermediate angular velocity ratios -ω(o)/ω(i)∈{0.6,0.8,1.0}, roughly -5/3 scaling for -ω(o)/ω(i)∈{0.2,0.3,0.4,2.0}, and no clear scaling law can be found for -ω(0)/ω(i)=0 (inner cylinder rotation only); the local scaling exponent of the spectra has a strong frequency dependence. We relate these observations to the shape of the probability density function of the azimuthal velocity and the presence of a neutral line.

Logarithmic boundary layers in strong Taylor-Couette turbulence

We provide direct measurements of the boundary layer properties in highly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow up to Re=2×106) (Ta=6.2×10(12)) using high-resolution particle image velocimetry and particle tracking velocimetry. We find that the mean azimuthal velocity profile at the inner and outer cylinder can be fitted by the von Kármán log law u+=1/κ lny+ +B. The von Kármán constant κ is found to depend on the driving strength Ta and for large Ta asymptotically approaches κ≈0.40. The variance profiles of the local azimuthal velocity have a universal peak around y+≈12 and collapse when rescaled with the driving velocity (and not with the friction velocity), displaying a log dependence of y+ as also found for channel and pipe flows.

High-precision Taylor-Couette experiment to study subcritical transitions and the role of boundary conditions and size effects

A novel Taylor-Couette system has been constructed for investigations of transitional as well as high Reynolds number turbulent flows in very large aspect ratios. The flexibility of the setup enables studies of a variety of problems regarding hydrodynamic instabilities and turbulence in rotating flows. The inner and outer cylinders and the top and bottom endplates can be rotated independently with rotation rates of up to 30 Hz, thereby covering five orders of magnitude in Reynolds numbers (Re = 10(1)-10(6)). The radius ratio can be easily changed, the highest realized one is η = 0.98 corresponding to an aspect ratio of 260 gap width in the vertical and 300 in the azimuthal direction. For η < 0.98 the aspect ratio can be dynamically changed during measurements and complete transparency in the radial direction over the full length of the cylinders is provided by the usage of a precision glass inner cylinder. The temperatures of both cylinders are controlled independently. Overall this apparatus combines an unmatched variety in geometry, rotation rates, and temperatures, which is provided by a sophisticated high-precision bearing system. Possible applications are accurate studies of the onset of turbulence and spatio-temporal intermittent flow patterns in very large domains, transport processes of turbulence at high Re, the stability of Keplerian flows for different boundary conditions, and studies of baroclinic instabilities.

Ultimate turbulent Taylor-Couette flow

The flow structure of strongly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow with Reynolds numbers up to Re(i)=2×10(6) of the inner cylinder is experimentally examined with high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV). The wind Reynolds numbers Re(w) of the turbulent Taylor-vortex flow is found to scale as Re(w)∝Ta(1/2), exactly as predicted by Grossmann and Lohse [Phys. Fluids 23, 045108 (2011).] for the ultimate turbulence regime, in which the boundary layers are turbulent. The dimensionless angular velocity flux has an effective scaling of Nu(ω)∝Ta(0.38), also in correspondence with turbulence in the ultimate regime. The scaling of Nu(ω) is confirmed by local angular velocity flux measurements extracted from high-speed PIV measurements: though the flux shows huge fluctuations, its spatial and temporal average nicely agrees with the result from the global torque measurements.