A Taylor-Couette experiment with inner rotating cylinder and applied dielectrophoretic force
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The search of efficient methods to improve heat transfer rates in miniaturized system is of main importance in many technical applications. In particular, the use of the dielectrophoretic (DEP) force attracted attention for more than half a century (\cite{Landau 2013}). When an electric field is applied to a dielectric fluid, the latest undergoes an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) force. If the electric field applied is alternating with sufficiently high frequency, the EHD force reduces to the DEP force that is due to the differential polarization of particles and can be seen as the action of effective electric gravity on a density stratification. Thermo-electric convection can be induced by the DEP force when the electric Rayleigh number reaches a critical value. The application of the DEP force is applied in a cylindrical annulus where the inner cylinder is rotating (see figure \ref{fig:Schem}). The combined DEP and centrifugal forces leads to complex dynamic related to various mechanisms, and allows for active control of the circular Couette flow and of the associated heat transfer. An experiment is being built in the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg. The experiment set-up will be described, and preliminary results from linear stability analysis will be given.