EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON TURBULENT HEAT TRANSFER MEASUREMENTS

WITH LIQUID CRYSTAL TECHNIQUE IN A RIBBED TUBE

zge Ate, Turkey
Supervisors: T. Arts & I. Mayo Yage


The main objective of this study is to carry out the heat transfer measurements on the surface of a smooth and
ribbed cylindrical tube with turbulent flow by using the Liquid Crystal Thermography within a relatively large
Reynolds Number range (2x10
4
10
5
). To get qualitative and quantitative information about the heat transfer, data
is acquired as Enhancement Factor.
There are numerous measurement techniques available to investigate the convective heat transfer distributions. In
this study the surface temperature is measured with wide-band Thermochromic Liquid Crystals, because they are
well suited to be a nonintrusive method and provide the opportunity to get full field temperature maps of the
investigated region. This technique is principally employed in investigations on heat transfer over flat surfaces. In
this study, steady, wide-band Thermochromic Liquid Crystal calibration and processing techniques are adjusted
for the heat transfer measurements on a cylindrical surface, in reference to the viewing angle effect.
As the results of the work, the heat transfer distribution over the cylindrical tube surface is determined (Figure 1).
The overall Nusselt number evolution along the tube with/without rib is compared to empirical correlations to
demonstrate the validity of the experiments (Figure 2).


Figure 1: Span-wise averaged Enhancement Factor distribution over the investigated region of the ribbed tube

Figure 2: Nusselt Number Comparison with empirical correlations as a function of Reynolds Number
0.6
0
.6
0
.9
0
.
9
0.9
0.9
1
.
2
1.2
1.2
1
.
5
1
.
2
1.8
1
.
8
0
.
9
Enhancement Factor @ Re=7x10
4
EF [Nu/Nuo]
X [mm]
Y

[
m
m
]


50 100 150 200 250
25
40
60
110
0.5
1
1.5
70mm, rib 0 50 100 150 200 250275
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8


X [mm]
E
n
h
a
n
c
e
m
e
n
t

F
a
c
t
o
r
,

[
E
F
]













Re=7*10
4
-smooth
Re=7*10
4
-ribbed
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
N
u
s
s
e
l
t

N
u
m
b
e
r
Reynolds Number
(x 10000)
Nusselt Number Comparison
Experiment & Correlations
Nu_smooth-exp
Nu_ribbed-exp
Nus(Dittus-Boelter)
Nua - Bergles (1985)