Attainment of maximum levels of natural convective heat transfer across major cavities using as a coolant a mixture of two pure gases instead of air

Abstract

The enhancement of heat transfer in natural convection cavities is a very difficult task because of the intervening low fluid velocities. It is of fundamental and practical interest to explore alternative instruments that are power-independent and exclude surface modifications for the augmentation of heat transfer in these cavities. One feasible way for enhancing heat transfer rates passively in cavities filled with a gas is to stimulate the mechanism by natural convection of heat. The central objective of this paper is to employ a mixture of two pure gases that yields levels of heat transfer increments that are unattainable by each pure gas acting along (or even by air). In general, dimensional analysis insinuates that four transport properties affect natural convection flows: density, isobaric specific heat capacity, dynamic viscosity and thermal conductivity. Simple correlation equations of power form are useful to engineers for a quick estimate of the magnitudes of the space-mean heat transfer coefficient. Detailed computations were made for four different gases: air, pure helium, pure argon, and a mixture of pure helium and pure argon and the relative merits of each of them have been discussed. Five major cavities of relevance in applications of thermal engineering have been analyzed in this work.