Uniform Wall Heat Flux Boundary Research Articles

Analysis of fully developed opposing mixed convection between inclined parallel plates

An exact solution is presented of fully developed, laminar flow between inclined parallel plates with a uniform wall heat flux boundary condition. The flow is downward and the heat flux is into the channel, so that natural convection opposes the forced flow. The solution depends on the two parametersP1=Gr sinθ/Re andP2=Gr cosθ/Re2Pr. Four different flow reversal regimes are observed: 1) no reversal, 2) top reversal, 3) bottom reversal, and 4) top and bottom reversal. Velocity profiles, temperature profiles, wall friction, and Nusselt numbers are presented. Despite the simplicity of the problem which has been analyzed, it does display some features which have been observed in real mixed convection flows, such as flow reversal and nonmonotonic dependence on tilt angle.

Heat Transfer to Turbulent Swirling Flow Through a Sudden Axisymmetric Expansion

Experimental data are presented for local heat transfer rates in the tube downstream of an abrupt 2:1 expansion. Water, with a nominal inlet Prandtl number of 6, was used as the working fluid. In the upstream tube, the Reynolds number was varied from 30,000 to 100,000 and the swirl number was varied from zero to 1.2. A uniform wall heat flux boundary condition was employed, which resulted in wall-to-bulk fluid temperatures ranging from 14° C to 50°C. Plots of local Nusselt numbers show a sharply peaked behavior at the point of maximum heat transfer, with increasing swirl greatly exaggerating the peaking. As swirl incressed from zero to its maximum value, the location of peak Nusselt numbers was observed to shift from 8.0 to 1.5 step heights downstream of the expansion. This upstream movement of the maximum Nusselt number was accompanied by an increase in its magnitude from 3 to 9.5 times larger than fully developed tube flow values. For all cases, the location of maximum heat transfer occurred upstream of the flow reattachment point.