The numerical simulation of Taylor-Couette flow with radial temperature gradient

The Taylor-Couette flow with radial temperature gradient is a canonical problem for the study of heat transfer in engineering issues. However, gaining insight into the transitional Taylor-Couette flow with temperature gradient still requires detailed experimental and numerical investigations. In the present paper we have performed computations for the cavity of aspect ratio Γ = 3.76 and radii ratios η = 0.82 and 0.375 with the heated rotating bottom disk and stationary outer cylinder. We analyse the influence of the end-wall boundary conditions and the thermal conditions on the flow structure, and on the distributions of the Nusselt number and torque along the inner and outer cylinders. The averaged values along the inner cylinder of the Nusselt number and torque obtained for different Re are analysed in the light of the results published in [2, 16, 17].