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

Abstract

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 $f_i=\pm 20$ Hz for the inner cylinder and $f_o=\pm 10$ 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 $L=549$ mm, giving a volume of $V=9.3$l. The geometric parameters are $\eta =r_i/r_o=0.714$ and $\Gamma =L/d=18.3$. With water as working fluid at room temperature the Reynolds numbers that can be achieved are ${\text{Re}}_i={\omega }_i{r}_i(r_o-r_i)/\nu =2.8\times 10^5$ and ${\text{Re}}_o={\omega }_o{r}_o(r_o-r_i)/\nu =2\times 10^5$, or a combined Reynolds number of up to $\text{Re}=({\omega }_i{r}_i-{\omega }_o{r}_o)(r_o-r_i)/\nu =4.8\times 10^5$. If the working fluid is changed to the fluorinated liquid FC-3284 with kinematic viscosity 0.42 cSt, the combined Reynolds number can reach $\text{Re}=1.1\times 10^6$. The apparatus features precise temperature control of the outer and inner cylinder 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.