Immiscible silicone oil and water were contained in a cylindrical vessel. The ratio of their volumes, referred to as the volume ratio, was varied over a wide range. The vessel was suddenly set in rotation, and the flow velocities of the two liquids were measured with particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). The flow establishment time was defined as the period from the start of rotation to the moment at which a steady state is established in the vessel. An empirical equation for the flow establishment time was proposed as a function of the volume ratio, the angular frequency of rotation, and the physical properties of the liquids. The deformation of the silicone oil-water interface was also observed to confirm the findings obtained from the velocity measurements.KEY WORDS: flow establishment time; rotating vessel; stratified liquid layers; particle image velocimetry; laser Doppler velocimetry. between the water and any kind of silicone oil is 53 mN/m. The diameter and the height of the vessel are 46 mm and 120 mm, respectively. The origin of the cylindrical coordinate system, (r, q, z), was placed on the center of the bottom plate. The vessel was connected to a stepping motor, and the vessel was enclosed with another transparent vessel of a square cross-section. Water was filled between the two vessels in order to decrease the parallax effect as much as possible. The cylindrical vessel was rotated suddenly at a predetermined constant rotation velocity, while the square vessel was fixed. The angular frequency of rotation, w, was varied from 2.36 rad/s to 11.00 rad/s. The kinematic viscosity of the silicone oil, n so , was changed from 1.0 mm 2 /s to 100 mm 2 /s.In general, the rotation Reynolds number is defined by: 1)ReϭR(w/n) where n w is the kinematic viscosity of water. The former Reynolds number plays an essential role in this study. The measurements were carried out in the laminar flow regime. 3,5) The volume ratio of water and silicone oil is defined by: where V w and V so are the volumes of water and silicone oil, respectively. The tangential velocity component of water flow, v qw , was measured with particle image velocimetry (PIV) 3) and the axial velocity component, v zw , was measured with laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). 6) This is because the axial velocity component is much smaller than the tangential velocity component, and the measurement accuracy of the LDV is higher than that of the PIV. The motions of tracer particles dispersed in the water were recorded with a CCD camera at 30 frames per second for the PIV measurement, as shown in Fig. 2. The diameter of the particles ranged from 75 to 100 mm. The images thus recorded with the camera were processed on a personal computer to obtain the tangential velocity component. A schematic of the experimental apparatus for the LDV measurements is shown in Fig. 3. The deformation of the interface between water and silicone oil was also observed with the camera to confirm the flow establishment time obtained from velocity measur...