On the natural convective heat transfer from a cold horizontal cylinder over an adiabatic surface

A steady two-dimensional laminar free convection heat transfer from a cold horizontal isothermal cylinder located above an adiabatic floor is studied both experimentally and numerically. In the experimental measurements the effects of cylinder distance from horizontal floor to its diameter (L/D) on heat transfer coefficient is studied for Rayleigh numbers of 3×105 and 6×105. Computations are made using OpenFOAM (an open source) code for wide range of Rayleigh numbers from 104 to 106 and comparisons are made with the corresponding experimental measurements. Flow stream lines and isothermal lines are plotted for different cylinder relative positions. Results indicate that cold plume flows downstream and strikes to the horizontal floor and moves horizontally away from cylinder over the horizontal floor. The finite space between cylinder and floor makes the flow different from those cylinders surrounded by an infinite medium. Results also indicate that variation of average heat transfer coefficient of the cold cylinder is highly affected by L/D. A new correlation for estimation of convection heat transfer for a single horizontal cylinder placed over an adiabatic floor is also developed.