Journalof Sound and Vibration(1981) 75(4), 581-582

HEAT TRANSFER FROM A VIBRATING CYLINDER

Several previous studies on the effect of vibrations on heat and mass transfer for cylinders
placed normal to an air stream have been reported. For low values of Reynolds’ number
(less than 5), Hegge Zijnen [l] found that the heat transfer rate from a tungsten wire
undergoing vibrations in the direction of air flow decreased from the static value. For
Reynolds’ numbers between 2500 and 15 000 Sreenivasan and Ramachandran [2] obser-
ved no appreciable change in the heat transfer coefficient when the cylinder was vibrated in
a direction perpendicular to the direction of the air stream. Recently, Wong and Ko [3,4]
investigated the mass transfer rate from cylinders vibrating in the direction of the flow of
air and reported that vibration enhanced mass transfer at Reynolds numbers less than
15 000 but at higher Reynolds’ numbers mass transfer was inhibited. Up to the present,
there is still comparatively little data available on the influence of vibration on convec-
tive heat transfer for cylinders vibrating in the direction of flow. The work reported here is
part of an experimental investigation on such effects of vibration on heat transfer at
Reynolds’ numbers ranging from 3000 to 50 000.
A test circular cylinder designed to measure the local heat transfer coefficient over the
entire circumference has been fabricated. The cylinder consists of 12 identical elements of
copper which are placed in grooves made in a Teflon rod of 38 mm in diameter to form a
rigid, smooth and almost continuous copper surface. All the elements have their own
thermocouples and heating arrangements. The cylinder was mounted horizontally in a
wind tunnel capable of producing a maximum velocity of 25 m/s. Vibratory motion in the
direction of the air stream was imparted to the test cylinder by means of a Briiel and Kjaer
exciter. The local heat transfer coefficients were determined from the convective heat loss
for each element, which was computed by subtracting the components due to radiation and
the net circumferential heat conduction from the total heat input to each element. The

Reynolds’ number bosed on non -vlbrotlnq cylinder

Figure 1. Heat transfer data for cylinder vibrated at (a) 10 Hz and (b) 30 Hz. - - 0 - -, Amplitude = 0.50 mm;
-A -, amplitude = 0.25 mm.
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0022-460X/81/080581 +02 $02.00/O @ 1981 Academic Press Inc. (London) Limited
582 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

average heat transfer coefficient of the cylinder was obtained by taking the mean value of
the local heat transfer coefficients.
The heat transfer data were correlated by plotting jH = (6/~&,)(Pr)“‘~ against the
Reynolds number for both stationary and vibrating cylinders. Here jH is the “j-factor” for
heat transfer, 6 is the average heat transfer coefficient for the cylinder, 0 the fluid velocity
normal to the cylinder, p the density of air, cp the specific heat of air and Pr the Prandtl
number. Figures l(a) and (b), respectively, show the values of jH for cylinders vibrating at
10 and 30 Hz relative to those for stationary cylinders. It can be seen that at Reynolds’
numbers less than about 15 000, heat transfer is enhanced at both vibration frequencies,
and increasing the amplitude further enhances heat transfer. However, at higher values of
Reynolds’ numbers (greater than 25 000), there are indications that the heat transfer rates
are in fact suppressed by the vibrational effects. Similar trends in the results have been
observed for mass transfer from vibrating cylinders [3] though the enhancement effect for
heat transfer at the low Reynolds number range is only a few percent as compared to that
of over 30% in the case of mass transfer. Further investigations are being made to account
for these discrepancies.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, C. T. LEUNG

University of Hong Kong, N. W. M. Ko
Hong Kong K. H. MA
(Received 6 December 1980)

REFERENCES

1. B. G. VAN DER HEGGE ZIJNEN 1958 Applied Scientific Research A7,205-223. Heat transfer
from horizontal cylinders to a turbulent air flow.
2. K. SREENIVASAN and A. RAMACHANDRAN 1961 International Journal of Heat and Mass
Transfer 3,60-67. Effect of vibration on heat transfer from a horizontal cylinder to a normal air
stream.
3. P. F. Y. WONG and N. W. M. KO 1977 Journal of Sound and Vibration 51, 314-315. Mass
transfer from vibrating cylinders.
4. P. F. Y. WONG, N. W. M. KO and P. C. YIP 1978 Transactions of the Institute of Chemical
Engineers 56, 214-216. Mass transfer from large diameter vibrating cylinders.