Experimental investigation of the effect of axial wall slits on Taylor-Couette flow

The effect of the presence of slits in the wall of the outer one of two concentric cylinders involved in creating a Taylor-Couette flow is experimentally investigated. Three models with different numbers of slits (6, 9 and 18) are used and the radius ratio and aspect ratio of the models are 0.825 and 48, respectively. The velocity fields are measured by using the digital particle image velocimetry method, and the refractive index matching technique is applied to remove image distortion. The flow regime in the Taylor-Couette flow is studied by increasing the Reynolds number. The results show that the presence of slits does not affect the laminar transition process and that the transition to turbulent Taylor vortex is accelerated as the number of slits increases.