Effect of Drop Deformation on Heat Transfer to a Drop Suspended in an Electrical Field

Abstract

Heat transfer to a drop of a dielectric fluid suspended in another dielectric fluid in the presence of an electric field is investigated. We have analyzed the effect of drop deformation on the heat transport to the drop. The deformed drop shape is assumed to be a spheroid and is prescribed in terms of the ratio of drop major and minor diameter. Results are obtained for both prolate and oblate shapes with a range of diameter ratio b/a from 2.0 to 0.5. The internal problem where the bulk of the resistance to the heat transport is in the drop, as well as the external problem where the bulk of the resistance is in the continuous phase, are considered. The electrical field and the induced stresses are obtained analytically. The resulting flow field and the temperature distribution are determined numerically. Results indicate that the drop shape significantly affects the flow field and the heat transport to the drop. For the external problem, the steady-state Nusselt number increases with Peclet number for all drop deformations. For a fixed Peclet number, the Nusselt number increases with decreasing b/a. A simple correlation is proposed to evaluate the effect of drop deformation on the steady-state Nusselt number. For the internal problem, for all drop deformations, the maximum steady-state Nusselt number becomes independent of the Peclet number at high Peclet number. The maximum steady-state Nusselt numbers for an oblate drop are significantly higher than that for a prolate drop.