An Experimental Apparatus to Investigate Natural Convection Heat Transfer From a Vertical Array of Isothermal Horizontal Cylinders

Steady natural convection heat transfer from vertical array of equally-spaced isothermal horizontal cylinders has been investigated experimentally and numerically. Experimental study was carried out at different ambient temperatures in a conditioned room which can be maintained at a stable required value and inside a sufficiently designed test cabin. The ambient and cylinders’ surface temperatures varied 20°C to 30°C and 30°C to 60°C respectively. The experimental apparatus was designed to adjust different operating parameters such as number of cylinders, cylinders’ surface temperatures, distance between the cylinders and environmental temperature. Each cylinder surface temperature can be accurately adjusted to the desired temperature by means of specially designed measurement and control system. Copper test cylinders have length of 1 m and outer diameter of 4.8 mm. The uncertainty analysis method proposed by Kline and McClintock was used and explained elaborately. Detailed information and algorithm of numerical method are given to ease the understanding of the numerical part of the study. The problem was solved numerically by means of a CFD program in 2D. Average Nusselt numbers are given based on the experimental data for single and each two horizontal cylinders. Heat transfer rates obtained from experimental and numerical studies for upper and lower cylinders were compared with each other. The deviation of experimental and numerical heat transfer rates are in a good agreement and stay in the range ± 20%. It is seen that heat transfer from the lower cylinder is close to the single cylinder case. However, higher temperature of the passing air reduces the heat transfer from the upper cylinder for S/D = 2.