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An experimental study on the transition criteria of open channel natural convection flows

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Abstract

Natural convection experiments were carried out for a wide range of the Grashof number from 104 to 5 × 109 or for the Rayleigh number from 107 to 1013 in order to seek the proper transition criteria from laminar to turbulent. Using the analogy concept, heat transfer systems were simulated by corresponding mass transfer systems. The copper sulfate electroplating system was chosen as the mass transfer system. The experimental results closely reproduced the McAdams’s correlation for laminar and Fouad’s for turbulent. The Sherwood numbers obtained from the experiment were proportional to the 1/4 power of Rayleigh number or Grashof number at laminar region and the near 1/3 power at turbulent region as the well known theory. This paper concludes that the proper transition criteria of the natural convection should be the Grashof number of 109. The originality of this paper comes from the fact that the study deals with very large value of Schmidt number and that by using the analogy experiment methodology, high values of Rayleigh number and Grashof number were achieved with a relatively short test facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atomic Creative Technology Co., Ltd, #705 Gwangpyeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-509, Korea

    Bong-Jin Ko

  2. Koran Atomic Energy Research Institute, P.O. Box 105, Yuseong, Daejeon, 305-353, Korea

    Min-Hwan Kim

  3. Department of Nuclear and Energy Engineering, Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology, Jeju National University, #102 Jejudaehakno, Jeju, 690-756, Korea

    Bum-Jin Chung

Authors
  1. Bong-Jin Ko
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  2. Min-Hwan Kim
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  3. Bum-Jin Chung
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Correspondence to Bum-Jin Chung.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Man-Yeong Ha

Bong-Jin Ko is a nuclear engineer in the ACT engineering company. He received his master’s degree in 2008 from Jeju National University on the topic of mixed convection heat transfer in a vertical cylinder for a VHTR (very high temperature reactor). His current works are to assess the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the nuclear power plant for the safety analysis and analyze the nuclear power plant containment safety.

Bum-Jin Chung is a Professor of Nuclear and Energy Engineering Department in Jeju National University, Korea. He received his Ph.D in 1994 from Seoul National University, Korea, on the topic of AP-600 containment cooling capability assessment. He has worked for Korean Ministry of Science and Technology and studied in the University of Manchester, U.K. He has published a series of articles on the experimental researches of the condensation phenomena. His current research interests are the analogy experiment method using electrochemical systems, natural and mixed convection heat transfers on various geometries in application to nuclear systems.

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Ko, BJ., Kim, MH. & Chung, BJ. An experimental study on the transition criteria of open channel natural convection flows. J Mech Sci Technol 26, 1227–1234 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-012-0203-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-012-0203-3

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