Taylor-Couette flow of shear-thinning fluids

The flow between two concentric cylinders, one of which is rotating (Taylor-Couette flow), has been the focus of extensive research, due to the number of flow instabilities that may occur and its use in various industrial applications. We examine Taylor-Couette flow of Newtonian and shear-thinning fluids (solutions of xanthan gum in water/glycerol) using a combination of particle-image velocimetry and flow visualization for a wide range of Reynolds number, spanning the circular Couette flow, Taylor vortex flow, and wavy vortex flow regimes. Shear thinning is associated with an increase in the axial wavelength and has a nonmonotonic effect on the critical Reynolds number for transition to Taylor vortex flow and wavy vortex flow. The magnitude of vorticity and the strength of the radial jets transporting fluid away from the inner cylinder (“outward jets”) are both reduced in shear-thinning fluids relative to the Newtonian case; the vorticity in the shear-thinning fluids also tends to concentrate at the edges of vortices, rather than in the cores. In the wavy vortex flow regime for Newtonian fluids, the amplitudes of the waves at the “inward jets” (moving toward the inner cylinder) are low compared to those at the outward jets. However, for the shear-thinning fluids, the amplitudes of the waves at both the inward and outward jets tend to be significantly larger. Finally, shear thinning is associated with greater variations in time and space: we observe slow drifts in the axial positions of vortices and spatial variations in the amplitudes of the wavy instability, which are absent in Newtonian fluids.