Experimental Heat Transfer, Vol.18, No.3, 127-134, 2005
Experimental study of natural convection from electrically heated vertical cylinders immersed in air
An experimental study of laminar steady-state natural convection heat transfer from electrically heated vertical cylinders immersed in air has been undertaken. Three stainless steel (316 SS) test sections of different slenderness ratios were employed. Surface temperature profiles along the vertical cylinders were obtained using miniature thermocouples when the cylinders were heated with different power levels resulting in different total wall heat fluxes. After the mandatory corrections for the radiation heat fluxes were made, three correlation equations relating the local Nusselt number Nu(y) with the local modified Rayleigh number Ra-y(*) and the position-to-cylinder diameter y/d were developed. The correlation equations are valid for Ra-y(*) ≤ 2 x 10(12).