Flow regimes in a vertical Taylor-Couette system with a radial thermal gradient

A rich variety of flow regimes in a Newtonian fluid inside a vertical large-aspect ratio and a wide-gap Taylor-Couette system with a radial temperature gradient has been determined in experiments and in direct numerical simulations (DNSs). Compared to previous experiments and numerical studies, a wider range of temperature differences (i.e., of the Grashof number Gr) and of the rotation rate (the Taylor number Ta) has been covered. The combined effect of rotation and of the radial temperature gradient is the occurrence of helicoidal vortices or modulated waves at the onset. Stationary axisymmetric vortices are found for very weak temperature differences. A good agreement was found for critical states between results from experiments, linear stability analysis, and DNS. Higher instability modes have been determined for a wide range of parameters and a state diagram of observable flow regimes has been established in the plane spanned by Gr and Ta. Some higher states observed in experiments were retrieved in DNS. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.