Experimental Study of the Effect of Transverse Oscillation on Convection Heat Transfer From a Circular Cylinder

Abstract

The present study is concerned with heat transfer characteristics of forced convective flows over a transversely oscillating cylinder. The effect of oscillation of the cylinder on heat transfer coefficient and flow pattern is evaluated by experimental measurement. A modified transient test method and a flow visualization technique are employed to determine the heat transfer coefficient and to observe the flow pattern, respectively, for various dimensionless oscillation frequencies (Sc), dimensionless oscillation amplitudes (A/D), and Reynolds numbers (Re). The ranges of these parameters considered in this study are 0 ≤ Sc ≤ 0.65, 0 ≤ A/D ≤ 0.628, and 0 ≤ Re ≤ 4000. Results show that the heat transfer coefficient can be significantly increased by the oscillation of the cylinder. Two effects that enhance the heat transfer performance are found, namely, the lock-on effect and the turbulence effect. A maximum of 34 percent increase in heat transfer is found within the parameter ranges considered in this study. Agreement of the present data is found with previous numerical studies; however, an existing approximate method, which ignores the lock-on phenomenon but which is commonly used to estimate the effect of oscillation on heat transfer, is found to be inapplicable in this study.