Experimental and analytical study on local heat transfer distribution between smooth flat plate and free surface impinging jet from a circular straight pipe nozzle

Abstract

The present study describes the heat transfer characteristics of free surface single-phase circular liquid jet impinging on a thin smooth flat surface subjected to uniform heat flux. The experimental setup is developed to measure the local temperature of a thin stainless steel metal foil using the infrared thermography technique. The effects of nozzle diameter (d = 2.5 to 10.8 mm), nozzle to plate spacing (z/d = 2 to 10), and Reynolds number (Re = 5000 to 24,000) on the local Nusselt number (Nu) distributions are studied. The local Nu is maximum in the stagnation region, and it decreases in the downstream flow following the stagnation region. The nozzle with a larger diameter shows maximum Nu compared to other nozzles. For a given z/d of 2 and a Reynolds number of 15,000, a maximum increment of 67% in local Nu is observed for a 10.8 mm nozzle in comparison to a 2.5 mm nozzle. The local Nu in the viscous boundary layer is found to be a function of the Reynolds number, Prandtl number, dimensionless r/d, and Weber number. The Nu increases with an increase in Reynolds number, however, the effect of the nozzle to plate spacing is negligible. The off-stagnation peak is observed for the 10.8 mm nozzle in the region of 0≤r/d≤0.7. The existing correlations reported in the literature are not able to capture the measured local Nusselt number distribution. Therefore, in the present study, an effort has been made to propose semi-empirical correlations for local Nu in the stagnation and viscous boundary layer region which will incorporate the diameter effect of the nozzle. The proposed correlations are able to predict the local Nusselt number distribution within the maximum deviation of 20%. The comparison between the free surface and submerged jet has been made which suggests that the local Nu for the submerged jet is higher compared to the free surface jet.