Convective Heat Transfer of an Air Bubble in Water With Variable Thermophysical Properties

Abstract

A numerical study of convective heat transfer of an air bubble in water with variable thermophysical properties is considered. Two-dimensional simulations of multifluid flows with heat transfer include the Navier–Stokes, energy, and volume of fluid (VOF) advection equations. The solver computes the flow field and temperature by solving the systems of Navier–Stokes equations and the energy equation using the finite–volume method with the SIMPLE algorithm and tracks the position of interface between two fluids with different fluid properties by the VOF method with piecewise linear interface construction technique. Empirical correlations in terms of temperature for thermophysical properties are considered in the simulations. The convective heat transfer model is assessed with a benchmark problem of cooling of water and compared with previous literature data showing good agreement. Finally, a numerical study of the effect of the bubble diameter in the range from 2 mm to 3 mm on heat transfer is performed.