The effect of buoyancy on heat transfer to a confined cylinder in cross-flow

What is it about?

Vortex shedding phenomenon for three-dimensional flow and heat transfer past a bounded cylinder is studied experimentally. Because of the buoyancy-induced secondary flow resulting from the proximity of the cylinder to the channel walls, the three-dimensional configuration of the flow is no longer symmetric with respect to the channel centerline and the heat transfer rates vary along the span.

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Photo by Adam Valstar on Unsplash

Photo by Adam Valstar on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The effect of buoyancy on heat transfer to a confined cylinder in cross-flow subjected to a uniform heat flux boundary condition has been studied experimentally. A parametric study has been carried out to evaluate the influence of opposing buoyancy and confinement effects on the thermal fields and overall nondimensional heat flux (Nusselt number) from the test cylinder for several values of the Reynolds and modified Richardson numbers. In this parameter space, results show that variations of the mean temperature distributions along the cylinder span elucidate important 3D effects of the final flow and thermal configuration. The results suggest several guidelines for the design of equipments aimed towards heat transfer enhancement in compact heat exchangers and other cooling equipment with smaller passage sections.

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