In this study, the effects of rib configuration on flow structure and axial mass transport in Taylor–Couette flow were investigated using computational fluid dynamics. Two configurations were considered: ribs attached to the inner cylinder and to the outer cylinder, with an axial spacing equal to twice the gap width. Steady-state flow fields and transient tracer transport were simulated under laminar and wavy vortex flow regimes. The results reveal that the rotational direction of Taylor vortex pairs depends strongly on the rib configuration, leading to distinct intercell transport characteristics. Tracer-response analyses show that ribs significantly suppress axial dispersion compared with non-ribbed Taylor–Couette flow. Moreover, ribs attached to the outer cylinder are more effective than those on the inner cylinder in reducing axial dispersion and achieving plug-flow-like behavior. These findings offer practical design guidelines for Taylor–Couette flow reactors requiring controlled axial mass transport.
Nakagawa et al. (Thu,) studied this question.