Effect of heated wall inclination on natural convection heat transfer in water with near-wall injection of millimeter-sized bubbles

Abstract

Natural convection heat transfer from a heated wall in water with near-wall injection of millimeter-sized bubbles is studied experimentally. Velocity and temperature measurements are conducted in the near-wall region. In the range of the heated wall angles from 0 to 40˚ from the vertical, the heat transfer coefficient increases by up to an order of magnitude with bubble injection. The ratio of the heat transfer coefficient with bubble injection to that without injection increases with the wall inclination angle. Based upon measured liquid temperature distributions and liquid flow velocity profiles, enhancement of heat transfer by bubble injection is explained by two mechanisms. First, wall-parallel transport of cold liquid into the thermal boundary layer is enhanced by the bubble-driven flow. Second, wall-normal mixing of warm liquid and cold liquid occurs, as a result of wall-normal velocity fluctuations of the liquid phase activated by a combination of bubble rising motion, vortex shedding from the bubbles, and unsteady vortices formed within the boundary layer. The unsteady vortices travel along the wall together with the bubbles, primarily contributing to the enhancement of heat transfer at higher wall inclination angles.