Convective heat transfer research using a cryogenic environment

Abstract

It is difficult to experimentally study the convective heat exchange from large objects with reduced scale models in a controlled laboratory environment because it is not possible to generate the large Reynolds and Grashof numbers which are required. Furthermore, the convective heat exchange is difficult to separate from the radiative heat transfer in many investigations. In this paper, the use of a cryogenic wind tunnel is shown to be a viable means of performing such investigations. The many advantages of using a cryogenic environment are established and a variable ambient temperature cryogenic heat transfer tunnel, which was constructed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is described. Representative experimental results are also presented.