Laser interferometry is combined with high-speed digital cinematography to measure time-averaged transient and turbulent convective heat transfer rates. The method is applied to study free convection in a tall vertical air-filled enclosure. Measurements are made at three wall spacings in the turbulent flow regime (5.2×104RaW2.8×105). An automated image processing algorithm is used to calculate the instantaneous local heat flux from a sequence of interferograms that is captured by a high-speed camera. The local Nusselt number distributions on the hot and cold walls are obtained by time-averaging the fluctuations in local heat flux. The effects of key experimental parameters, such as the camera frame rate and the total image capture time, are investigated. For the current problem, it is shown that a total capture interval of about 10 s is required to accurately measure the time-average local Nusselt number. Within the measurement uncertainty, the average Nusselt number results are in agreement with a widely used empirical correlation from the literature.

1.
Kuehn
,
T. H.
, and
Goldstein
,
R. J.
, 1978, “
An Experimental Study of Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Concentric and Eccentric Horizontal Cylindrical Annuli
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
0022-1481,
100
, pp.
635
640
.
2.
Kuehn
,
T. H.
, 1976, “
Natural Convection Heat Transfer From a Horizontal Circular Cylinder to a Surrounding Cylindrical Enclosure
,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota, Minnesota.
3.
Liou
,
T. -M.
, and
Wang
,
J. -J.
, 1992, “
Turbulent Heat Transfer Augmentation and Friction in Periodic Fully Developed Channel Flows
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
0022-1481,
114
, pp.
56
64
.
4.
Liou
,
T. -M.
,
Hwang
,
J. -J.
, and
Chen
,
S. S.
, 1993, “
Simulation and Measurement of Enhanced Heat Transfer in a Channel With Periodic Ribs on One Principal Wall
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
0017-9310,
36
(
2
), pp.
507
517
.
5.
Liou
,
T. -M.
,
Wang
,
W. -B.
, and
Chang
,
Y. -J.
, 1995, “
Holographic Interferometry Study of Spatially Periodic Heat Transfer in a Channel With Ribs Detached From One Wall
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
0022-1481,
117
, pp.
32
39
.
6.
Kilicaslan
,
I.
, and
Sarac
,
H. I.
, 1998, “
Enhancement of Heat Transfer in Compact Heat Exchanger by Different Type of Rib With Holographic Interferometry
,”
Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci.
0894-1777,
17
, pp.
339
346
.
7.
Herman
,
C.
, and
Kang
,
E.
, 2001, “
Comparative Evaluation of Three Heat Transfer Enhancement Strategies in a Grooved Channel
,”
Heat and Mass Transfer
,
37
, pp.
563
575
.
8.
Herman
,
C.
, and
Kang
,
E.
, 2001, “
Experimental Visualization of Temperature Fields and Study of Heat Transfer Enhancement in Oscillatory Flow in a Grooved Channel
,”
Heat and Mass Transfer
,
37
, pp.
87
99
.
9.
Newport
,
D. T.
,
Dalton
,
T. M.
,
Davies
,
M. R. D.
,
Whelan
,
M.
, and
Forno
,
C.
, 2001, “
On the Thermal Interaction Between an Isothermal Cylinder and Its Isothermal Enclosure for Cylinder Rayleigh Number of Order 104
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
0022-1481,
123
, pp.
1052
1061
.
10.
Touloukian
,
Y. S.
,
Liley
,
P. E.
, and
Saxena
,
S. C.
, 1970, “
Thermal Conductivity: Nonmetallic Liquids and Gases
,”
Thermophysical Properties of Matter
, Vol.
3
,
Plenum
,
New York
.
11.
Touloukian
,
Y. S.
, and
Makita
,
T.
, 1970, “
Specific Heat: Nonmetallic Liquids and Gases
,”
Thermophysical Properties of Matter
, Vol.
6
,
Plenum
,
New York
.
12.
Touloukian
,
Y. S.
,
Saxena
,
S. C.
, and
Hestermans
,
P.
, 1975, “
Viscosity: Nonmetallic Liquids and Gases
,”
Thermophysical Properties of Matter
, Vol.
11
,
Plenum
,
New York
.
13.
Wright
,
J. L.
,
Jin
,
H.
,
Hollands
,
K. G. T.
, and
Naylor
,
D.
, 2006, “
Flow Visualization of Natural Convection in a Tall Air-Filled Vertical Cavity
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
0017-9310,
49
, pp.
889
904
.
14.
Naylor
,
D.
, and
Roeleveld
,
D.
, 2009, “
Measurement Error in Laser Interferometry Caused by Free Convective Boundary Layers on Optical Windows
,”
Opt. Lasers Eng.
0143-8166,
47
, pp.
1103
1107
.
15.
Goldstein
,
R. J.
, 1970, “
Optical Measurement of Temperature
,”
Measurement Techniques in Heat Transfer
,
E. R. G.
Eckert
and
R. J.
Goldstein
, eds.,
Technivision Services
,
Slough, England
, pp.
177
228
.
16.
Naylor
,
D.
, 2002, “
On the Accuracy of Beam-Averaged Interferometric Heat Transfer Measurements
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
0022-1481,
124
, pp.
978
982
.
17.
Slepicka
,
S. S.
, and
Cha
,
S. S.
, 1995, “
Stabilized Nonlinear Regression for Interferogram Analysis
,”
Appl. Opt.
0003-6935,
34
(
23
), pp.
5039
5044
.
18.
Moffat
,
R. J.
, 1988, “
Describing the Uncertainties in Experimental Results
,”
Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci.
0894-1777,
1
, pp.
3
17
.
19.
Lacona
,
E.
, and
Taine
,
J.
, 2001, “
Holographic Interferometry Applied to Coupled Free Convection and Radiative Heat Transfer in a Cavity Containing a Vertical Plate Between 290 and 650 K
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
0017-9310,
44
, pp.
3755
3764
.
20.
Dietz
,
G.
, and
Balkowski
,
I.
, 1997, “
Interferometry and Reconstruction of Strongly Refracting Fields in Two-Dimensional Boundary Layer Flow
,”
Exp. Fluids
0723-4864,
22
, pp.
423
431
.
21.
ElSherbiny
,
S. M.
, 1980, “
Heat Transfer by Natural Convection Across Vertical and Inclined Air Layers
,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON.
22.
ElSherbiny
,
S. M.
,
Raithby
,
G. D.
, and
Hollands
,
K. G. T.
, 1982, “
Heat Transfer by Natural Convection Across Vertical and Inclined Air Layers
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
0022-1481,
104
, pp.
96
102
.
23.
Poulad
,
M. E.
,
Naylor
,
D.
, and
Oosthuizen
,
P. H.
, 2009, “
Measurement of Unsteady Convection in a Complex Fenestration Using Laser Interferometry
,”
Proceedings of the Fourth Canadian Solar Buildings Conference
, Toronto, ON.
You do not currently have access to this content.