The irreversibility distributions have been calculated for a circular Couette flow of ethylene glycol with temperature dependent thermal conductivity and viscosity. The approximate series solutions of velocity and temperature fields are used to obtain the gradients to calculate the spatial entropy generation rate with narrowing gap of the Couette, It was found that the irreversibility distribution is relatively more uniform for a narrow-gap Couette. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.