A review of heat transfer between concentric rotating cylinders with or without axial flow

Heat transfer in flow between concentric rotating cylinders, also known as Taylor-Couette flows, constitutes a long-existing academic and industrial subject (in particular for electric motors cooling). Heat transfer characteristics of those flows are reviewed. Investigations of previous works for different gap thickness, axial and radial ratio, rotational velocity are compared. Configurations with axial flow and/or with slots on the cylinders are also considered. For each case, different correlations are presented. Finally, unresolved issues are mentioned for further research. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.