An experimental investigation is made of the thermal interaction between a horizontal isothermal cylinder centrally located in a water-cooled isothermal cubical enclosure. The study is restricted to laminar flow and cylinder Rayleigh numbers of order 104. The application of interest is the cooling of electronic systems. This field is currently lacking in techniques that can measure the complex fluid phenomena encountered in real systems. The paper therefore begins with an experimental review of interferometry to assess its applicability as a potential solution to this need. Based on this review, a real time Digital Moire´ Subtraction interferometer is used to measure temperature profiles, and local Nusselt number distributions in two regions of interest: the plume impingement on the ceiling of the enclosure, and the upper corner region of the enclosure. A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is used for the cylinder Nusselt number distribution. Results are compared both qualitatively and quantitatively with a numerical simulation run on a commercial CFD package widely used for electronic system temperature predictions. The paper gives considerable insight into the nature of the enclosure heat transfer and an indication of the accuracy of a widely used predictive code.

1.
Warrington
,
R. O.
, and
Powe
,
R. E.
,
1985
, “
The Transfer of Heat by Natural Convection Between Heated Bodies and Their Enclosures
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
,
28
, No.
2
, pp.
319
330
.
2.
Shaw
,
C.
,
Chen
,
C.
, and
Cleaver
,
J. W.
,
1988
, “
The Effects of Thermal Sources on Natural Convection in an Enclosure
,”
International Journal of Fluid and Heat Flow
,
9
, No.
3
, pp.
296
301
.
3.
Ghaddar
,
N. K.
,
1992
, “
Natural Convection Heat Transfer Between a Uniformly Heated Cylindrical Element and Its Rectangular Enclosure
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
,
35
, No.
10
, pp.
2327
2334
.
4.
Dalton, T. M., and Davies M. R. D., 1996, “An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Natural Convection Plumes Above a Horizontal Cylinder in an Isothermal Enclosure,” HTD-Vol. 329, National Heat Transfer Conference, 7, pp. 3–10.
5.
Keyhani
,
M.
, and
Dalton
,
T.
,
1996
, “
Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Horizontal Rod-Bundle Enclosures
,”
Transactions of the ASME: Journal of Heat Transfer
,
118
, pp.
598
605
.
6.
Liu
,
N. Y.
,
Phan-Thien
, and
Kemp
,
R.
,
1996
, “
Coupled Conduction-Convection Problem for a Cylinder in an Enclosure
,”
Computational Mechanics
,
18
, pp.
429
443
.
7.
Koizumi
,
H.
, and
Hosokawa
,
I.
,
1996
, “
Chaotic Behavior and Heat Transfer Performance of the Natural Convection Around a Hot Horizontal Cylinder Affected by a Flat Ceiling
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
,
39
, No.
5
, pp.
1081
1091
.
8.
Cessini
,
G.
,
Paroncini
,
M.
,
Cortella
,
G.
, and
Manzan
,
M.
,
1999
, “
Natural Convection From a Horozontal Cylinder in a Rectangular Cavity
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
,
42
, pp.
1801
1811
.
9.
Lasance, C. I. M., 1993, “Thermal Management of Air-Cooled Electronic Systems: New Challenges for Research,” Proceedings of EUROTHERM Seminar 29, June, 14–16, Delft, Netherlands, pp. 3–24.
10.
Ostrach
,
S.
,
1988
, “
Natural Convection in Enclosures
,”
Journal of Heat Transfer
,
110
, pp.
1175
1189
.
11.
Barton, J. S., Kilpatrick, J. M., MacPherson, W. N., Jones, J. D. C., Chana, K. S., Anderson, J. S., Buttsworth, D. R., and Jones, T. V., 1998, “Unsteady Temperature and Pressure Measurement Using Optical Fibre Aerodynamic Probes,” Proceedings of the 14th Bi-Annual Symposium on Measuring Techniques in Transonic and Supersonic Flow in Cascades and Turbomachines, Limerick, Ireland.
12.
Hauf
,
W.
, and
Grigull
,
U.
,
1970
, “
Optical Methods in Heat Transfer
,”
Adv. Heat Transfer
,
6
, pp.
133
366
.
13.
Goldstein, R. J., 1983, Fluid Mechanics Measurements, Hemisphere, Washington.
14.
Merzkirch, W., 1987, Flow Visualisation, 2nd ed., Academic Press, San Diego, CA, pp. 158–206.
15.
Creath, K., 1994, Phase-Shifting Holographic Interferometry, for Holographic Interferometry, edited by P. K. Rastogi, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 109–148.
16.
Yokozeki
,
S.
, and
Mihara
,
S.
,
1979
, “
Moire Interferometry
,”
Journal of Applied Optics
,
18
, No.
8
, pp.
1275
1280
.
17.
Forno, C., and Whelan, M., 1999, “Digital Moire Subtraction Applied to Interferometers as a Means of Improving Accuracy and Extending Field of View for Engineering and Optical Measurement,” Proceedings of the SPIE conference on Interferometry 99, Pultusk, Poland, pp. 49–57.
18.
Patankar, S. V., 1980, Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Hemisphere, Bristol, PA.
19.
Ferziger, J. H., and Peric, M., 1997, Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics, 2nd ed., Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin.
20.
Natural Convection Flow Around a Heated Cylinder in a Cool Walled Enclosure, 1997, Flomerics Ltd., PMR-1999, Confidential Report.
21.
Flotherm v. 2.1: Introductory course, 1998, Flomerics Ltd., Flomerics, UK.
22.
Bejan, A., 1993, Heat Transfer, 1st ed., Wiley, New York, pp. 335–397.
23.
Kuehn
,
T. H.
, and
Goldstein
,
R. J.
,
1980
, “
Numerical Solution to the Navier-Stokes Equations for Laminar Natural Convection About a Horizontal Isothermal Circular Cylinder
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
,
23
, pp.
971
979
.
24.
Saitoh
,
T.
,
Sajiki
,
T.
, and
Maruhara
,
K.
,
1993
, “
Benchmark Solutions to Natural Convection Heat Transfer Problem Around a Horizontal Circular Cylinder
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
,
36
, No.
5
, pp.
1251
1259
.
25.
Incropera, F. P., and De Witt, D. P., 1990, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, 3rd Edition, Wiley Inc., New York, pp. 431–438.
26.
Dalton, T., 1997, “On Enclosure Natural Convection for Electronic Cooling Applications,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
27.
Jodlbauer, K., 1933, “Das Temperatur- und Geschwindigkeitsfeld um ein geheitzes Rohr bei Freier Konvektion,” Forschung Verein Deutsche Ingenieure, 4, pp. 158–172.
28.
Didion, D. A., and Oh, Y. H., 1966, “A Quantitative Grid-Schlieren Method for Temperature Measurement in a Free Convection Field,” Technical Report No. 1, The Catholic University of America, Washington.
29.
Havener, G., and Radlay, R. J., 1972, “Quantitative Measurements Using Dual Hologram Interferometry,” Aerospace Research Laboratories Report 72-0085.
You do not currently have access to this content.