Measurements in Buoyancy-Opposing Laminar Flow Over a Vertical Forward-Facing Step

Abstract

Measurements are reported for buoyancy-opposing laminar mixed convection flow over a vertical, two-dimensional forward-facing step, in which the upstream wall of the step simulated an adiabatic surface, while both the step and the downstream wall from the step were heated to a uniform temperature that was higher than the approaching air temperature. Results presented in this paper are for a step height of 0.8 cm, over a range of free stream velocities 0.39 m s-1 ≤ u∞ ≤ 0.71 m s-1 and a range of temperature differences 0°C ≤ ΔT ≤ 35°C between the heated surface and the free stream. Laser-Doppler velocimeter and cold-wire anemometer were used to measure, respectively, the air velocities and the temperature distributions simultaneously. Flow visualizations were also used to observe the nature of the flow and to measure the length of the recirculation region downstream of the forward-facing step. The results reveal that the buoyancy-opposing force due to the downstream wall heating affects significantly the velocity and temperature distributions, the local Nusselt number, and the location and the size of the recirculation region downstream of the step.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0017-9310

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1996 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 1996

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