Experimental Investigation of Free-Convection Heat Transfer in Vertical Tube at Large Grashof Numbers

Report presents the results of an investigation conducted to study free-convection heat transfer in a stationary vertical tube closed at the bottom. The walls of the tube were heated, and heated air in the tube was continuously replaced by fresh cool air at the top. The tube was designed to provide a gravitational field with Grashof numbers of a magnitude comparable with those generated by the centrifugal field in rotating-blade coolant passages (10(8) to 10(13)). Local heat-transfer coefficients in the turbulent-flow range and the temperature field within the fluid were obtained.