Experimental study of the induced flow birefringence of a suspension of rigid particles at the transition from Couette flow to Taylor vortex flow

✍ Scribed by J. P. Decruppe; R. Hocquart; R. Cressely

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 456 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-4511
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00444375

✦ Synopsis

The flow birefringence induced in solutions of rigid particles is studied experimentally in the region of the axisymmetrical Taylor vortex flow which arises once the velocity gradient G in the annular gap of a conventional Couette cell reaches a critical value Go.

The measurements are performed for several values of G>Gc and for 10 radial observation points in the annular gap. Solutions of two types of rigid particles are investigated: the first is a suspension of flattened clay particles like bentonite, while the second contains rod-like particles of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). The variations of the birefringence intensity A n and of the extinction angle X measured in the domain of the axisymmetrical flow show a different behavior according to the shape of the particle in solution. This fact is confirmed theoretically with a good agreement for the measurements performed with solutions of flat particles.