Full-field velocity measurements in unsteady natural convection flow about a heated rod using pulsed laser velocimetry
Conference Paper
Overview
Additional Document Info
View All
Overview
abstract
The objective of the undertaken study is to apply recent advances and improvements in the technique of Digital Pulsed Laser Velocimetry to the analysis of natural convective flows about a cylindrical conductor emitting a uniform heat flux within a transparent rectangular enclosure. Such a configuration is of prime interest in numerous engineering systems; however, the specific concern of this study is directed toward advanced nuclear reactor designs which rely upon natural convection cooling concepts in the event of emergency upset conditions. Accurate modeling of such systems depends upon the availability of reliable, high quality experimental data which establishes the foundations of the model itself. Pulsed Laser Velocimetry is a rapidly advancing fluid flow visualization technique which allows the determination of full field, instantaneous velocity vectors of a quantitative nature such that the flow field itself remains undisturbed by the measurement. In this study results were obtained for a wide variety of flow regimes subject to numerous boundary conditions in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed digital data acquisition and analysis methodologies which are unique among current systems of similar design.
