Instability of water cooled from above

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1973

OSTI ID:4084863

Snider, D M; Viskanta, R; Chow, V T ^[1]

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1. ed.

The temperature field and convection currents induced in water by convection, evaporation and radiation cooling of its surface were studied. These phenomena occur naturally and continuously in any lake, pond, reservoir or a river but they remain usually unobserved. Mach--Zehnder interferograms taken from the side of a tank of water are here used to measure the temperature distribution and to study the convective currents induced by cooling from the surface. Experiments were performed with initially uniform and thermally- stratified layers of water. Both qualitative and quantitative results of preliminary nature for temperature distribution are presented. Interferograms vividly reveal mixing motions induced by instabilities arising in the surface layer. The onset of manifest convective behavior was determined by visual observations of interferograms. (auth)

• Research Organization: Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN
• NSA Number: NSA-33-020207
• OSTI ID: 4084863
• Report Number(s): CONF-7309143--P4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

*SURFACE WATERS-- HEAT TRANSFER
*THERMAL POLLUTION
*WATER-- THERMODYNAMICS
520400* --Environmental Sciences
Aquatic--Thermal Effluents Monitoring & Transport
CONVECTION
EVAPORATION
INSTABILITY
INTERFEROMETERS
INTERFEROMETRY
MIXING
N44630* --Environmental & Earth Sciences--Thermal Effluents-- Water
STRATIFICATION
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
WATER POLLUTION