Experimental Investigation on Pulsating Horizontal Heating of a Water-Filled Enclosure

Experimental results of the natural convection generated by the time periodic horizontal heating of a square cross-section enclosure filled with water are reported. A pulsating (on/off) heat flux is delivered to the heating wall of the enclosure, with the opposite wall cooled by a high thermal capacitance system. All other surfaces are insulated. Heating periods from 32 to 1600 seconds and cycle-averaged heat-flux based Rayleigh numbers from 2.5 × 10⁸ to 1.0 × 10⁹ are considered. Results presented in terms of time series, phase-plane portraits, and cyclic evolution of surface-averaged cooling and heating wall temperatures illustrate the main characteristics of the evolution to periodic regime. Also presented are the cycle-averaged heat transfer coefficient versus heating period, and the corresponding average Nusselt number versus Rayleigh number for various heating frequencies. These results, which support published theoretical and numerical analysis, indicate that by tuning the heating period properly, the heat transfer across an enclosure can be enhanced. The results also reveal that short heating periods hinder the convection within the enclosure, in general (e.g., for Ra = 7.5 × 10⁸ and a period of 32 s the heat transfer coefficient is 13 percent smaller than the steady heating value). The sensitivity of the transport phenomenon to pulsating heat is shown to depend strongly on Ra. Finally, a correlation for estimating the maximum heat transfer coefficient, derived from the experimental results, is presented.