NMR IMAGING STUDIES OF STRATIFIED FLOWS IN A HORIZONTAL ROTATING CYLINDER

NMR imaging was used to study the flow of pairs of density stratified? immiscible fluids in a horizontal, rotating cylinder. Mixtures of oil and water, oil and ethyl alcohol, and air and water were studied in the regime of slow rotation in which stratification was maintained. Two types of NMR experiments were performed. A NMR tagging method was used to visualize the flow fields, and a phase method was used to measure detailed, quantitative two-dimensional velocities far from the ends of the cylinder. The difference of the spin-lattice relaxation times of the liquids was exploited to discriminate between the fluids. Both NMR experiments showed that the flows were composed of boundary layers rotating with the cylinder, interfacial currents, and slowly counter-rotating internal regions.