Taylor-Couette flow between in a gap of two coaxial cylinders is studied using a combination of particle image velocimetry (PIV) experimental data and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Wavy vortex flow and modulated wavy vortex flow which are two flow regimes of Taylor-Couette flow are investigated using the PIV technique and power spectral density. In addition, the turbulent Taylor-Couette flow is studied by means of Reynolds-average Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations and stereo-PIV. Two main turbulence models of Reynolds-average Navier-Stokes simulations are used in the investigation and verified with the PIV experimental data. The investigations provide in-depth evaluation of the simulation schemes.

This work shows that computational fluid dynamics in combination with PIV data is an excellent tool to study turbulent structures in the Taylor-Couette flow. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the in-depth evaluation of RANS simulation.