Velocity measurements in the free convection flow above a heated horizontal cylinder

The fluid dynamics of the free convection water flow above a heated horizontal cylinder were investigated using particle image velocimetry. Velocity measurements were obtained in three orthogonal planes, with each plane acquired independently in time. The experiment was performed for a Rayleigh number of 1.33 × 10⁶ and for water heights above the cylinder surface of H/D = 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12. The top water surface was open to room air, and the height of the free surface introduced different effects of vertical confinement. For all water heights studied, the plume above the cylinder and its interaction with the free surface were observed. For water heights of H/D = 4 and 6, the appearance of a swaying motion was captured in the plane perpendicular to the cylinder axis, and a meandering motion was detected in the other two orthogonal planes. A vortex was observed to form alongside of the plume and rise to the free surface, where it detached from the plume structure and moved along the free surface. Vortex dynamics and the physical characteristics of the swaying and meandering motions appeared to be interdependent, providing a possible relation between vortex formation, swaying, and meandering. Comparisons with previous analytical and experimental results highlight the complicated three-dimensional flow structure that governs heat transfer from the cylinder.     

Numerical simulations of a second-order chemical reaction in a plane turbulent channel flow

We analyze numerical simulations of a second-order chemical reaction (Da = 1) in a fully developed turbulent plane channel flow at a low Reynolds number (Re_τ = 180). The reactive plume is formed when a reactant A is released through a line source into the channel flow doped with reactant B. Two different inlet pre-mixing conditions and line source heights are considered. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) and Stochastic Fields (SF) methods have been used and compared for these different conditions. The results obtained using SF are sensitive to the particular value of the turbulent Schmidt number (Sc_T) selected to model the turbulent dispersion. It has been found that if a representative value of Sc_T extracted from DNS is used in the SF method, both DNS and SF, give similar results.     

Dispersion of a buoyant plume in a turbulent pressure-driven channel flow

Direct numerical simulations of the turbulent dispersion of a buoyant line of hot fluid released at the inlet of a plane channel flow are reported (Re_τ = 180, Gr = 10⁷ and Pr = 0.7). Results of turbulent dispersion of a neutrally buoyant scalar and mixed convection flow are also included. The buoyancy force induces a vertical movement that, although small in mean, exhibits a significant fluctuation in the vertical velocity component and deflects the plume with the consequent loss of symmetry found in the neutrally buoyant results. The modification of the budgets for the time averaged momentum and heat transport equations reflects the rearranging of the different contributions induced by the buoyancy force.     

Investigation of a large top wall temperature on the natural convection plume along a heated vertical wall in a square cavity

The characteristics of the laminar natural convection in an air-filled square cavity heated and cooled on the side walls was studied for cases where the temperature of the top wall was significantly larger than the heated vertical wall. Experiments were performed for a horizontal Grashof number of 1.3 × 10⁸, and non-dimensional top wall temperatures from 1.4 to 2.3. The results show that the plume formed on the heated vertical wall separated from this wall before reaching the top wall. As a result, three different regions were observed in the cavity: a stratified core region, a buoyant plume region, and a highly stratified region above the plume after it had separated from the vertical wall. The highly stratified region above the plume became larger and more stable with an increase of the top wall temperature, stabilizing the motion of the plume across the cavity. The similarity solutions developed by Kulkarni et al. [A.K. Kulkarni, H.R. Jacobs, J.J. Hwang, Similarity solution for natural convection flow over an isothermal vertical wall immersed in thermally stratified medium, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 30 (1987) 691–698] to characterize the natural convection heat transfer along an isothermal single vertical plate did not agree with the results for the current measurements; however, the non-similarity model of Chen and Eichhorn [C.C. Chen, R. Eichhorn, Natural convection from a vertical surface to thermally stratified fluid, J. Heat Transfer 98 (1976) 446–451] was in good agreement over most of the wall. There were some discrepancies in the temperature distributions and the heat transfer characteristics, especially at y/H ? 0.8 due to the separated flow in this region.     

Experimental study of thermal behaviors in a rectangular channel with baffle of pores

This experimental study attempts to explore the local heat transfer in rectangular channel with baffles, and analyzes the experimental results of baffles with different heights and pores in the event of five Reynolds numbers and three heating quantities. Apart from increasing the perturbation of flow field, the channel's flow field with baffles, which is similar to a backward-facing step flow field, is very helpful to heat transfer. To obtain an optimized baffle and increase the perturbation of flow field, this experiment employed baffles with five heights (H = 10–50 mm) and different numbers of pores (N = 1–3), as well as heat flux: Q = 40–100 l/min, Reynolds number: 702–1752, and heating quantity: q_in = 90–750 W/m². In addition to measurement of overall temperature distribution, emphasis is also placed on analysis of local heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, heat transfer distribution of channel can be applied to explain how the baffles of pores have an influence upon backward-facing step flow field, shear layer, recirculation region, reattachment region and redeveloped boundary layer. Finally, some empirical formulas derived form experimental results may provide a reference for future design.     

Optimised mixing and flow resistance during shear flow over a rib roughened boundary

A series of numerical investigations has been performed to study the effect of lower boundary roughness on turbulent flow in a two-dimensional channel. The roughness spacing to height ratio, w/k, has been investigated over the range 0.12 to 402 by varying the horizontal rib spacing. The square roughness elements each have a cross-sectional area of (0.05 H)², where H is the full channel height. The Reynolds number, Re_τ is fixed based on the value of the imposed pressure gradient, dp/dx, and is in the range 6.3 × 10³ − 4.5 × 10⁴. A Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) based turbulence modelling approach is adopted using a commercial CFD code, ANSYS-CFX 14.0. Measurements of eddy viscosity and friction factor have been made over this range to establish the optimum spacings to produce maximum turbulence enhancement, mixing and resistance to flow. These occur when w/k is approximately 7. It is found that this value is only weakly dependent on Reynolds number, and the decay rate of turbulence enhancement as a function of w/k ratio beyond this optimum spacing is slow. The implications for heat transfer design optimisation and particle transport are considered.     

Experimental investigation of mixed convection heat transfer from longitudinal fins in a horizontal rectangular channel

Mixed convection heat transfer from longitudinal fins inside a horizontal channel has been investigated for a wide range of modified Rayleigh numbers and different fin heights and spacings. An experimental parametric study was made to investigate effects of fin spacing, fin height and magnitude of heat flux on mixed convection heat transfer from rectangular fin arrays heated from below in a horizontal channel. The optimum fin spacing to obtain maximum heat transfer has also been investigated. During the experiments constant heat flux boundary condition was realized and air was used as the working fluid. The velocity of fluid entering channel was kept nearly constant (0.15 ? w_in ? 0.16 m/s) using a flow rate control valve so that Reynolds number was always about Re = 1500. Experiments were conducted for modified Rayleigh numbers 3 × 10⁷ < Ra¹ < 8 × 10⁸ and Richardson number 0.4 < Ri < 5. Dimensionless fin spacing was varied from S/H = 0.04 to S/H = 0.018 and fin height was varied from H_f/H = 0.25 to H_f/H = 0.80. For mixed convection heat transfer, the results obtained from experimental study show that the optimum fin spacing which yields the maximum heat transfer is S = 8–9 mm and optimum fin spacing depends on the value of Ra¹.     

Vehicle queue effect on the characteristics of air flow,and exhaust scalar dispersion and distribution fields in the vehicle wake

The characteristics of air flow, and vehicular exhaust scalar (i.e., pollutant) dispersion and distribution fields in the near-wake region of a scale-model vehicle which was placed alone or behind the preceding one(s) in a closed-circuit wind tunnel facility were experimentally investigated for typical urban driving conditions. The wake structure behind a queue of studied vehicles is mainly dominated by the last one, while the preceding vehicle(s) will lead to a stronger downwash flow in the wake. For the vehicle with rear slant angle (α < 30°) which has a pair of trailing vortices in the wake flow, the vehicular exhaust jet plume will be mainly trapped inside these two trailing vortices and fills an “m-shaped” scalar distribution region behind the vehicle. Half of the m-shaped region which is on the vehicular tailpipe exit side shares a larger portion of scalar distribution than the other half. This unbalanced scalar distribution is enhanced by the preceding vehicle(s). For the vehicle with rear slant angle (α > 30°) which has a two-dimensional wake flow, the vehicular exhaust jet plume will be carried by such a wake flow to form an “n-shaped” scalar distribution region behind the vehicle with a peak scalar region at its center. The preceding vehicle(s) will further enlarge the n-shaped scalar distribution region and push the peak scalar region closer to the ground. It is clearly shown that the two- or three-dimensional flow behind the studied vehicle can provide different shapes of exhaust scalar dispersion and distribution fields in the vehicle wake.     

Flow reversal of laminar mixed convection in the entry region of symmetrically heated,vertical plate channels

The present numerical investigation is concerned with flow reversal phenomena for laminar, mixed convection of air in a vertical parallel-plate channel of finite length. Results are obtained for buoyancy-assisted flow in a symmetrically heated channel with uniform wall temperatures for various Grashof numbers and Reynolds numbers in the range 300 ≤ Re ≤ 1300. The effects of buoyancy forces on the flow pattern are investigated and the shapes of velocity and temperature profiles are discussed in detail. Flow reversals centred in the entrance of the channel are predicted. The strength of the cells decreases as the Reynolds number is increased, until they disappear. The regime of reversed flow is identified for high values of the Péclet number in a Pe–Gr/Re map. It is also shown that the channel length has no influence on the occurrence of the reversal flow provided that H/D ≥ 10.     

Comparative evaluation of the performance of sinuous symmetrically-heated natural convection channels

Buoyancy-driven flows established in vertical channels are investigated numerically. Two different sinuous morphologies for a vertical channel are proposed as alternatives to a typical (straight) vertical channel; one is a sinus-shaped channel, and the other is a three-segment channel. The objective is to carry out a comparative evaluation of the thermal and dynamic performance of the proposed configurations, comparing their performance with that corresponding to a typical vertical channel. The low-Reynolds k − ω turbulence model is employed to simulate the transitional or fully turbulent flow. The average Nusselt number and the dimensionless mass flow rate are obtained for Rayleigh numbers ranging 10² ≤ Ra_H ≤ 10¹⁵, with an aspect ratio of the channel equal to 0.1. Sizeable increases in the Nusselt number and the mass flow rate are found for the sinuous configurations, under given conditions.     

History recovery and source identification of multiple gaseous contaminants releasing with thermal effects in an indoor environment

Thermal transport and transient dispersion of pollutants emitted from two discrete strips within the displacement ventilation enclosure have been modeled numerically. Following the full numerical simulation of turbulent air flows, the inverse determinations of multiple pollutant sources were conducted by the use of quasi reversibility methodology. Direct simulation together with the turbulent streamlines and turbulent heatlines demonstrate that the enclosure flow pattern, enclosure air thermal level and heat transfer potential will depend on the interactions of external forced flow and thermal buoyancy driven flows, i.e., Reynolds number (2 × 10³ ? Re ? 10⁴) and Grashof number (10⁶ ? Gr ? 10¹⁰). In subsequent forward time and backward time modeling of airborne pollutant transports, temporal evolutions of enclosure average concentration and pollutant exhaust are shown to depend on the supplying velocity (Re), thermal plume (Gr), pollutant diffusivity (0.1 ? Sc ? 2), and the pitch between both sources (0.2H ? d_PSL = d_PSR ? 0.7H). Reverse time modeling of airborne spread has demonstrated that increasing the spread rate and the concentration sensitivity of airborne pollutants will facilitate the identification of pollutant sources.     

Transport phenomena and performance of a plate methanol steam micro-reformer with serpentine flow field design

A numerical investigation of the transport phenomena and performance of a plate methanol steam micro-reformer with serpentine flow field as a function of wall temperature, fuel ratio and Reynolds number are presented. The fuel Reynolds number and H₂O/CH₃OH molar ratio (S/C) that influence the transport phenomena and methanol conversion are explored in detail. In addition, the effects of various wall temperatures on the plates that heat the channel are also investigated. The predictions show that conduction through the wall plays a significant effect on the temperature distribution and must be considered in the modeling. The predictions also indicate that a higher wall temperature enhances the chemical reaction rate which, in turn, significantly increases the methanol conversion. The methanol conversion is also improved by decreasing the Reynolds number or increasing the S/C molar ratio. When the serpentine flow field of the channel is heated either through top plate (Y = 1) or the bottom plate (Y = 0), we observe a higher degree of methanol conversion for the case with top plate heating. This is due to the stronger chemical reaction for the case with top plate heating.     

The effects of geometrical parameters of a corrugated channel with in out-of-phase arrangement

Numerical investigations of forced turbulent convective flow and heat transfer in a corrugated channel of plate heat exchanger are carried out. The continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). The top and bottom walls of the corrugated channel are heated at constant heat flux boundary conditions. The effects of geometrical parameters of corrugated tilt angles, channel heights and wavy heights using water as a working fluid on the thermal and flow fields as well as on the performance of evaluation criterion are studied. The corrugated channel with three different corrugated tilt angles of 20°, 40° and 60° with different channel heights of 12.5, 15 and 17.5 mm and different wavy heights of 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 mm are tested. This investigation covers Reynolds number and heat flux in the range of 8000–20,000 and 0.4–6 kW/m², respectively. The numerical results indicate that the wavy angle of 60° and wavy height of 2.5 mm with channel height of 17.5 mm are the optimum parameters and they have a significant effect on the heat transfer enhancement. It is found that using wavy channel is a suitable method to increase the thermal performance and getting higher compactness of the heat exchanger.     

Effect of flow geometry parameters on transient heat transfer for turbulent flow in a circular tube with baffle inserts

The effect of the flow geometry parameters on transient forced convection heat transfer for turbulent flow in a circular tube with baffle inserts has been investigated. The characteristic parameters of the tubes are pitch to tube inlet diameter ratio H/D = 1, 2 and 3, baffle orientation angle β = 45°, 90° and 180°. Air, Prandtl number of which is 0.71, was used as working fluid, while stainless steel was considered as pipe and baffle material. During the experiments, different geometrical parameters such as the baffle spacing H and the baffle orientation angle β were varied. Totally, nine types of baffle inserted tube were used. The general empirical equations of time averaged Nusselt number and time averaged pressure drop were derived as a function of Reynolds number corresponding to the baffle geometry parameters of pitch to diameter ratio H/D, baffle orientation angle β, ratio of smooth to baffled cross-section area S_o/S_a and ratio of tube length to baffle spacing L/H were derived for transient flow conditions. The proposed empirical correlations were considered to be applicable within the range of Reynolds number 3000 ⩽ Re ⩽ 20,000 for the case of constant heat flux.     

Frequency-dependent heat transfer enhancement from rectangular heated block array in a pulsating channel flow

The effect of pulsating flow on convective heat transfer from periodically spaced blocks in tandem on a channel wall is experimentally investigated. The spacing l between repeated blocks varied from l/L = 0.3 to 0.6 where L is the block pitch. The experiments are carried out in the range of 10 Hz < f_F < 100 Hz and 0.2 < A < 0.3. A pulsating flow is imposed by an acoustic woofer at the channel inlet and a constant heat is generated at each protruding block. The impact of the important governing parameters such as the Reynolds number, the Strouhal number and the inter-block spacing on heat transfer rate from heated blocks is examined in detail. The experimental results show that thermal transport from the blocks is greatly affected by the frequency, the amplitude of the flow pulsation, the inter-block spacing and the Reynolds number. Thermal resonance frequency which shows a maximum heat transfer coincides well with the inverse of traveling time of a fluid parcel that can be determined from the block periodicity and the Reynolds number.     

Cooling of two smooth cylinders in row by a slot jet of air with low turbulence

According to the current literature on the cooling of two cylinders in row, by a uniform flow of air, the first cylinder is always a heat transfer promoter versus the second one. The aim of the present paper is to summarize the state of art of the literature on the cooling of two cylinders in row by a slot jet of air. Additional experiments are carried on in order to investigate the possible application of jet cooling to heat transfer apparatuses, including electronics, in order to study the positions of the two cylinders in row which realize the same heat transfer on each cylinder. In the experiments a slot jet of air with low turbulence is employed with a slot height, S, equal to the impinged cylinder diameter, D, i.e. D/S = 1.0. The first cylinder is set at two distances H from the slot exit, H/S = 4 and 6, while the distance of the second cylinder from the first one, L, is variable from L/S = 2–11. The Reynolds number, Re, defined with the cylinder diameter D, spans in the range Re = 11,000–22,200. If the first cylinder is set at the dimensionless distance from the slot exit which realizes the maximum mean heat transfer on the first cylinder, i.e. H/S = 6, the second one has generally a lower mean Nusselt number. The only exception is when the second cylinder is set at the dimensionless distance L/S = 4 and the Reynolds number is at the maximum value experimented, i.e. Re = 22,200. If the first cylinder is set at the dimensionless distance H/S = 4 the mean Nusselt number on the second cylinder is greater if its distance from the first one is in the range L/S = 3.5–7 for Re = 14,300–22,200. The first cylinder acts as a heat transfer promoter, as happens in uniform flow, only for Re = 22,200.     

Measurement of local heat/mass transfer coefficients on a dimple using naphthalene sublimation

Local and average heat/mass transfer characteristics on a single dimple were investigated using a naphthalene sublimation technique. The dimple depth in this study ranged from 20% to 40% of the channel height. The experimental conditions covered the range from laminar to low-velocity turbulent flow regimes, 500 ? Re_H ? 5000. Secondary flows from the dimple were clearly observed in the transient flow regime of Re_H = 2000–3000. The velocity fluctuation in the mixing layer over the dimple increased with the dimple depth and the Reynolds number. The impingement of the mixing layer and the induced secondary flows augmented the Sherwood number around the rear rim of the dimple and in the rear plateau region, respectively. For a Reynolds number of 3000, the Sherwood number increased significantly due to the increased fluctuation in the mixing layer and the intensified secondary flows from the dimple. The heat/mass transfer augmentation factors increased as the Reynolds number increased, reaching 1.5 at a Reynolds number of 5000.     

Convective diffusion from strip-like micro-probes into colloidal suspensions

Full equations of convective diffusion are solved numerically for a strip-like (2D) electrodiffusion friction probe in a stream of microdisperse liquid, assuming a non-linear near-to-wall velocity profile ranging from simple shear flow (p = 1) to ideal slip (p = 0). The range of generalized Peclet number H from H = 0.01 (almost pure spatial diffusion) to H = 100 (diffusion layer with negligible longitudinal diffusion) covers all cases of possible experimental relevance. The main result is expressed as a relative deviation of actual total diffusion flux N from its diffusion-layer approximation N_DLA, Ψ = N/N_DLA ? 1.     

Jet impingement cooling of a constant heat flux horizontal surface in a confined porous medium: Mixed convection regime

In the present study, numerical investigation of jet impingement cooling of a constant heat flux horizontal surface immersed in a confined porous channel is performed under mixed convection conditions with the limitation of the Darcy model. The results are presented in the mixed convection regime with wide ranges of the governing parameters: Péclet number (1 ? Pe ? 1000), Rayleigh number (10 ? Ra ? 100), half jet width (0.1 ? D ? 1.0), and the distance between the jet and the heated portion (0.1 ? H ? 1.0). It is found that the average Nusselt number increases with increase in either Rayleigh number or jet width for high values of Péclet number. The average Nusselt number also increases with decrease in the distance between the jet and the heated portion. The correlation for Nu_avg in the forced convection regime is suggested. It is shown that mixed convection mode can cause minimum average Nusselt number unfavorably due to counteraction of jet flow against buoyancy driven flow. Hence, careful consideration must be given while designing a system of jet impingement cooling through porous medium.