Numerical investigations on the effect of bubble injection on heat transfer of natural convection in laminar flows

Abstract

It was found that the injection of bubbles into liquid can effectively improve heat transfer efficiency, so it is important for industrial applications to investigate the effect of bubble injection on heat transfer. The effect of bubble injection on natural convective heat transfer in steady laminar flows in a vertical channel is investigated using the volume of fluid (VOF) method, and the effects of bubble diameter, Eötvös number (Eo), bubble arrangement, and bubble distance from a hot wall on the heat transfer between the hot wall and liquid are studied, respectively. The results show that bubble injection can effectively improve the heat transfer between the hot wall and liquid; an increase in bubble diameter and Eo can improve the enhancement effect of heat transfer and can expand the enhancement area of heat transfer; the closer to the hot wall a bubble is, the better the enhancement of heat transfer is; and the spacing and arrangement of bubbles also have important effects on the heat transfer between the hot wall and liquid. The comparison shows that the enhancement of heat transfer is the best for the vertical arrangement of double bubbles, which increases the local heat transfer coefficient by 3.2 times. The enhancement of heat transfer generated by bubble injection is related to the degree of disturbance of the local liquid phase caused by bubble injection. The more strongly the local liquid is disturbed, the thinner the local temperature boundary layer becomes, and the better the enhancement of heat transfer is.