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Taylor-Couette instability in disk suspensions: Experimental observation and theory

Using the well-known hydrodynamic theory for dilute suspensions of spheroids, we have previously predicted the destabilization of Taylor-Couette flow due to anisotropic viscous stresses induced by suspended disk-shaped particles [Gillissen and Wilson, Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 113903 (2018)]. Here we provide experimental evidence for the destabilization mechanism using suspensions of mica flakes. There is good qualitative agreement between the experiment and theory in the mica concentration dependence of the critical speed for instability onset and of the axial wavelength of the corresponding Taylor vortices. Quantitative differences are attributed to hydrodynamic interactions between the disks, which we account for in the theory in an ad hoc fashion using rotary diffusion.