Thermal convection with large viscosity variation in an enclosure with localized heating

Journal Article · Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2910389· OSTI ID:6033635

Chu, T Y; Hickox, C F ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The present study is undertaken in order to gain an understanding of certain aspects of convective transport in a magma chamber. The authors have chosen to represent the chamber by an enclosure with localized heating from below. Results of both laboratory experiments and computer modeling are reported. The experimental apparatus consists of a transparent enclosure with a square platform. An electrically heated strip, with a width equal to 1/4 of the length of a side of the enclosure, is centered on the lower inside surface of the enclosure. For the experiments reported here, the top of the fluid layer is maintained at a constant temperature and the depth of the layer is equal to the width of the heated strip. The large viscosity variation characteristic of magma convection is simulated by using corn syrup as the working fluid. Measured velocity and temperature distributions as well as overall heat transfer rates are presented. The experiment is numerically simulated through use of a finite element computer program. Numerically predicted steamlines, isotherms, and velocity distributions are presented for the transverse vertical midplane of the enclosure. Good agreement is demonstrated between predictions and measurements.

• OSTI ID: 6033635
• Journal Information: Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States), Vol. 112:2; ISSN 0022-1481
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
MAGMA SYSTEMS
CONVECTION
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CAVITIES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
SANDIA LABORATORIES
VISCOUS FLOW
WORKING FLUIDS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID FLOW
FLUIDS
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
HEAT TRANSFER
MASS TRANSFER
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
SIMULATION
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
150200* - Geology & Hydrology of Geothermal Systems