Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Hemisphere

Yasuaki SHIINA , Kaoru FUJIMURA , Norio AKINO & Tomoaki KUNUGI

To cite this article: Yasuaki SHIINA , Kaoru FUJIMURA , Norio AKINO & Tomoaki KUNUGI (1988)
Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Hemisphere, Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology,
25:3, 254-262, DOI: 10.1080/18811248.1988.9733585

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/18811248.1988.9733585

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Journal of NUCLEAR SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY, 25 [3), pp. 254- 262 (March 1988).

Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Hemisphere

Yasuaki SHIINA, Kaoru FUJIMURA

Norio AKINO and Tomoaki KUNUGI

Heat Transfer Laboratory,

Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute*

Received May 21, 1987

Natural convection in a hemisphere was studied with bottom surface heated and
hemispherical surface cooled. Heat transfer and flow visualization experiments were per-
formed. The range of Rayleigh number and Prandtl number were 9 x I 0 6 <Ra < 7 x I 0 9
and 6<Pr<860 for heat transfer experiment and 2 x 10 5 <Ra<3 x 10 7 and 6<Pr<
860 for flow visualization experiment. Heat transfer characteristic was empirically cor-
related by the following relation as a function of Rayleigh number : Nu=0.2352 Ra 0 · ' " .
The value of the exponent 0.242 is close to 0.25 which corresponds to the case of the
laminar natural convection in vertical parallel plates. The measurement of the fluid tem-
perature in vertical direction showed that hot thermal plumes reached near the top of
the hemisphere for low Rayleigh number(- Ra <I x I 0 9 ) and the hot thermal plumes
played an important role on the liquid temperature reversal observed for low Rayleigh
number. For high Rayleigh number(- Ra >I x 10 9 ), the effect of the hot thermal plumes
was confined in the vicinity of the hot surface and the temperature reversal disappeared.
Flow visualization experiment revealed the existence of downward flow along the inner
hemispherical surface. The existence of the downward flow suppresses the generation of
the cold thermal plumes.
KEYWORDS : Rayleigh number, experimental dllta, natural convection, heat transfer, hemi-
sphere, flow visualization, thennal plume, temperature dependence

ranges of aspect ratios H/L(Io)-( 15 >. Cylindrical,

I. INTRODUCTION
The importance of natural convection has
been increased in many industrial applications.
Much attention has been given to natural convec-
tion in enclosures of basic geometries, and
recently, in enclosures of various geometries.
This comes from the applications of building,
space and nuclear engineering.
Many studies have been made on natural con-
vection in enclosures. Most of them, however, are
restricted to the cases of rectangular enclosures
such as horizontal and vertical parallel plates.
Natural convection in horizontal parallel plates
with bottom surface heated has been studied
both theoretically and experimentally for wide
ranges of Rayleigh numbers and in some cases for
wide ranges of Prandtl numbers< 1)- <9>. Natural
convection in vertical parallel plates with side
wall heated have been also studied for wide
concentrically spherical, and triangular en-
closures have been also studied by several investi-
gators(16)- (19).
Natural convection in a hemisphere, however,
has not been examined although it is one of the
basic geometries. In nuclear engineering, this
sutdy is important for safety analysis of High
temperature Gas Cooled Reactors (HTG Rs).
The reason is that when a loss of forced convec-
tion cooling accident occurs, high temperature
coolant gas in the reactor core is transported by
natural convection to the upper pressure vessel
whose configuration is similar to a hemisphere
and therefore thermal effects of the natural
convection on the pressure vessel must be esti-
mated for the safety analysis.
The purpose of the present study is to obtain
basic data of natural convection heat transfer
* Tokai-mura, Jbaraki-ken 319-11.

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Vol. 25, No.3 (Mar. 1988)
and flow characteristics in a hemisphere with
bottom surface heated and hemispherical surface
cooled. Two kinds of experiment were perform-
ed-heat transfer and flow visualization experi-
ments. Heat transfer rate was measured on a
hemispherical surface and flow pattern in a
hemisphere was observed. Since there is no prior
paper concerning to this geometry, results were
compared with the data of other investigators
previously available for rectangular enclosures.
Liquid was adopted for the working fluid be-
cause Rayleigh number could be varied widely
even if the size of the hemisphere was fixed. The
ranges of Rayleigh number (Ra) and Prandtl
number (Pr) in each experiment were 9 x 10 6 <
Ra<7 x 10 9 and 6<Pr<860 for the heat
transfer experiment, and 2 x 10 5 <Ra < 3 x 10 7
and 6 <Pr< 860 for the flow visualization ex-
periment. Rayleigh number based on the tem-
perature difference between the upper pressure
vessel and the reactor core of HTGR at the
occurrence of loss of forced cooling is estimated
to be the order of 10 11 • Prandtl number of
HTGR is almost 0.7. The conditions of the
present study were two order (heat transfer) or
four order (for visualization) lower for Ra and
one order higher for Pr than the conditions of
HTGR. The present experiments were performed
as the first step to study the natural convection
heat transfer and flow characteristics in a hemi-
sphere heated from below. Qualitative discussion
would be possible for the application of the
present results to HTGR. For the quantitative
discussion, further study "'ill be required for
higher Ra region comparable with the reactor
condition.
ll. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
AND PROCEDURE
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the ap-
paratus for the heat transfer experiment. The
apparatus consists of a hemispherical shall
300 mm J.D., 8 mm thick and a heating copper
plate 20 mm thick. Heat was supplied by three
sheathed heaters soldered concentrically in the
grooves made on the equally divided three con-
centrical regions of the copper plate. Surface
temperature of the copper plate was measured by
six alumel-chromel thermocouples, i.e. two
-41-
255
thermocouples on each concentric region. Outer
surface of the hemisphere was cooled by water
flowing in copper tubes which were soldered on
the outer surface.
Cooling
\'T"""....._..r-- Water
Heater Copper Plate
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of experimental
apparatus
Inner and outer surface temperatures of the
hemisphere were measured at 14 points shown in
Fig. 2. These points were located on the bounda-
ry of five concentric regions of the hemispherical
surfaces (A-E) as shown in Fig. 2. Four thermo-
couples were soldered on each point, i.e. two on
the inner surface at different positions and two
on the outer surface at different positions. Heat
flux was evaluated by heat conduction calcula-
tion using the measured surface temperatures.
Average heat transfer rate was obtained by the
arithmetical average of the calculated local heat
fluxes.
~
8(deg)
A 16
B 28
cD ""
60
E 76
Fig. 2 Positions of thermocouples soldered
concentrically on surface of hemi-
spherical shell (regions A- E)
Temperature of the copper plate (hot surface)
was kept at a constant value. Maximum differ-
ences in the measured local surface temperature
of the copper plate was within 0.3°C. Four
liquids, water, ethyl alcohol, 78 and 44% aque-
ous glycerine were used as working fluids in the
present study. Distilled water was degassed by
boiling under the atmosphere for several minutes.
256 J. Nucl. Sci. T('chnol..

A pipe of 5 mm O.D. was welded at the top of visualization experiment was 1/3 of that for heat
the hemisphere, shown in Fig. I, which was used transfer experiment.
as an air release pipe when liquid was poured into
the hemisphere. Liquid temperature was measur- ID. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ed by an alumel-chromel thermocouple probe I _ Heat Transfer
with wire diameter of 50 ttm inserted through Generally the functional relationship between
the air release pipe. The probe was traversed Nusselt number (Nu) and Rayleigh number (Ra)
vertically along the center axis (z-direction). As is is correlated as
described later, liquid temperature except near
Nu=C Ranp,m, (I )
the hot and cold thermal boundary layers was
almost constant and the value was used as bulk where C, 11 and nz are the empirical constants.
temperature in the present study. Physical pro- The data of average Nu obtained on the hemi-
perties were estimated at the bulk temperature. spherical surface (cold surface) are shown in
The experiment was carried out at various hot Fig. 3 against Ra. Figure 3 indicates that effect
surface temperatures ranged from 8 to 45°C. of Pr on Nu is not prominent. The data can be
Rayleigh number is based on the inner radius of represented by the following relationship :
the hemisphere as Ra = g fl:JT R'1/l.iiC. The range
Nu=0.2357 Ra"· 2 '". ( 2)
of Ra and Pr was 9 x 10 6 <Ra<7.l x 10 9 and
6<Pr<860. 4~~~~~~~n~~~~~-,~
Electrical input was adjusted to an appro- 1
o watPr
o 4.4•1.g1ycerine
priate value by digital controllers. After 24 h or o 18•1. glycerine
more, it was assumed that a steady state condi- 10' v othyl alcohol

tion was attained when all temperatures remain-

ed constant for several hours, and then thermo-
couple outputs were recorded. Time averaged
values for I 0-20 s were used as surface tem-
peratures. Longer time, 60-900 s, was taken for
averaging liquid temperature because of low
frequency and high amplitude of its fluctuation.
Longer averaging time described above cor-
responded to a lower Ra region since the fre-
quency of the liquid temperature fluctuation
became low with decrease in Ra.
Flow in a hemisphere was observed by an ap-
pratus for flow visualization, which was made of
acrylic resin. Diameter of the hemisphere was
I 00 mm. Thermo-sensitive liquid crystal powder
and Ti0 2 coated mica powder were used as tem-
perature and flow tracers respectively. Since the
color of the liquid crystal changes at about 30°C,
the hot surface was kept near the temperature.
Consequently, hot thermal plume could be dis-
tinguished by the difference of color. Water and
78 ~ aqueous glycerine were used as working
fluids. The range of Ra and Prof the flow visuali-
zation experiment was 2 x 10 5 <Ra < 3 x 10 7
and 6 <Pr < 860. Rayleigh number range is
fairly lower than the heat transfer experiment
because the diameter of the hemisphere for flow
I~
-
4 ······-Tanaka PI al( 7)
- - Dropkin ot a I (I)
-··- Soki ol a1.112)
I I I
1 9 10
10
6
10' 1o' 10 10
Ra
Fig. 3 Plot of average Nusselt number against
Rayleigh number and comparison with
data of rectangular enclosures
The present experimental data were compared
with the data obtained by Tanaka & Miyata< 7),
Dropkin & Somerscales(l) in the horizontal
parallel plates and Seki et a/. (! 2 ) in the vertical
parallel plates. Their data represented by the
three lines in the figure lie above the present
data, especially the data in the horizontal parallel
plates fairly above the present data. In the cases
of horizontal and vertical parallel plates, average
heat transfer rate on the hot and cold surfaces
were equal because of the same areas. For the
present case, however, the cold surface was
twice as large as the hot surface, therefore,

-42-
Vol. 25, No.3 (Mar. 1988) 257

average heat transfer rate on the cold surface was
just half of that on the hot surface. This would
be the major reason why the present data lay
below the data of other investigators. Rayleigh
number dependence of average heat transfer rate
on the hot surface which was just twice of that
on the cold surface is shown by the broken line
for the comparison with the data of horizontal
and vertical parallel plates. The broken line lay
above the three lines below Ra < 4 X 1a8 •
Natural convection in a hemisphere appears to
have both characteristics of that in horizontal
and vertical enclosures, because the top surface
of a hemisphere can be considered to be hori-
zontal and the side surface to be vertical. For
horizontal parallel plates, transition from laminar
to turbulent flow occurs at Ra = 1a4 - 10 5 (4 ).
Below Ra- I a4 • there is no definite value of the
exponent n. Above Ra- I a5 , the flow is turbu-
lent and the experimental value of the exponent
ranges of a.28- a.33. For vertical parallel plates,
on the other hand, laminar-turbulent transition
depends upon the aspect ratio H/L. The transi-
tion Ra increases with decrease in H/ L. The
value of the exponent 11 is I /4 for laminar flow
and I /3 for turbulent flow. Bohnet a/. <2 o) report-
ed that the heat transfer mechanism was laminar
(i.e. n = 1/4) even for Ra-10 10 with H/L to be
unity. The value of the exponent a.242 in Eq.
( 2 ) is smaller than the value for turbulent
natural convection in horizontal parallel plates
and close to a.25 which corresponds to the
laminar natural convection in vertical parallel
plates. It may be worthy to note, however. that
the exponent n of the data for ethyl alcohol
(high Ra) seems to be larger than a.242. Further
experiment will be required for higher Ra.
Relation between local average Nu and Ra is
shown in Fig. 4 where solid line denotes Eq. ( 2 ).
Local average Nu were obtained by the arithme-
tic average of the heat transfer rates on each five
for each region are almost same as the exponent
of Eq. ( 2 ) except for high Ra region (- Ra
;;; I 09 ). For Ra:;;;; 10 9 , effect of the vertical angle
on Nu became small as shown in Fig. 4.
-Eq(2)
1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-LW
10 6 10 7 10e 10 9 10'0
Ra
Fig. 4 Plot of local average Nusselt number
against Rayleigh number
Heat transfer results suggest that the domi-
nant mechanism of heat transfer from liquid to
the hemispherical inner surface (cold surface) is
rather laminar convection than turbulent convec-
tion (- Ra ~I 0 9 ). Since cold liquid flows down
along the inner surface of the hemisphere and the
top of the hemisphere is a stagnation point as
is subsequently shown in Photo. I (b), a laminar
boundary layer may develop from the top along
the inner surface of the hemisphere even for high
Ra.
2. Distribution and Fluctuation
of Liquid Temperature
Figure 5 shows temperature fluctuations of
water at Ra = 3.1 x 10 8 with z/o (and z/R) as a
parameter, where o
denotes the equivalent heat
conduction thickness defined as follows :
o=R!2Nu. ( 3)
z/6=2·2
(z/R:003)
~ I2•c

concentric boundary (region A- E) shown in z/6=37 ~

Fig. 2. Figure 4 shows a tendency that the local (z/R =0 67)
average Nu decrease with increase in vertical z/c5:53 ~
(z/R=095) 1 ' I I ' ·
angle (} measured from the top of the hemisphere
shown in Fig. 2 even if in some cases Nu is higher 30sec
at the position of large vertical angle than at the Liquid : Water
position of small vertical angle. The figure also Fig. S Liquid temperature fluctuation
indicates that the exponents of Ra against Nu at Ra=3.! x !0 8

-43-
258
Top, middle and bottom traces correspond to
the vicinity of the hot surface, the middle and
near the top of the hemisphere (cold surface),
respectively. A mass of hot liquid is released
from the hot surface as a hot thermal plume. It
can be seen from the figure that hot thermal
plumes are released very frequently near the hot
surface (z/R = 0.03). The hot thermal plumes can
be observed in the middle region but the fluctua-
tion amplitude is very small (z/R = 0.67). Near
the top of the hemisphere (z/R = 0.95), abrupt
temperature decrease due to cold thermal plumes
can be observed but the frequency is fairly lower
than that of the hot thermal plumes.
Local value of time-averaged, maximum and
minimum liquid temperature denoted T av. T max
and T min respectively were obtained at some
local positions z. Figure 6 shows vertical dis-
tribution of 2T+IL1T and 2LIL1T. Figure 6 (a)
shows the profiles with Ra as a parameter. With
Ra = 7.1 x 10 9 , temperature fluctuations induc-
ed by the hot and cold thermal plumes were
1. 0 ..----..---.--..-----,--.-----,-.---.-.--,
• Ra=7-1x10 9 (Pr:16-4)
=5-1x107 ( =10-5)
0-5
~ -05
,_!.
N N
-1-00
0-2 0-4
z/R
(a) Effect of Rayleigh number
Fig. 6 (a), (b) Distribution maximum liquid temperature deviation from average temperature
Vertical distribution of the time averaged
liquid temperature is shown in Fig. 7 with
Ra as a parameter. Figure 7 shows that
the temperature is almost constant in the
major part of the vertical region and it changes
very steeply in the thermal boundary layers.
Non-dimensional bulk temperature (T 6 -Tc)
I L1T was found to be high for low Ra. As seen
from the figure, non-dimensional bulk tempera-
ture at Ra = 7.1 x 10 9 and 7.8 x 10 8 was less
than 0.5, whereas at Ra = 3.4 x 10 7 it was
higher than 0.5. Somerscales et al. (3) and Chu &
J. Nucl. Sci. Techno/.,
localized close to both surfaces. However, since
thernal boundary layer was very thin, both
thermal plumes reached far beyond the thermal
boundary layers. The fluctuations could not be
distinguished in the middle region of the hemi-
sphere. With Ra = 5.1 x 10 7 , however, maximum
liquid temperature deviation 2T +I LJT maintained
fairly high value in the vicinity of the cold sur-
face compared with the case of Ra = 7.1 x 10 9 •
This was brought about by the rising of the hot
thermal plumes. Figure 6 (b) shows the profiles
at Ra - 5 x 107 with Pr as a parameter. With
Pr = 530 (solid circles, 78~~ glycerine), fluctua-
tions due to cold thermal plumes could not be
clearly distinguished. With Pr = 10.5 {open
circles, water), however, the fluctuations could
be observed. These were observed mainly close
to the cold thermal boundary layer with the
thickness of about 7 mm and fluctuation fre-
quency was very low compared with the case of
highRa.
1-0 ..---..----,.--..----,--.---..---,----..-,.----,
Ra:5x107 • Pr = 530
=10-5
~
,_!
0-B 1-0
0-6
z/R
(b) Effect of Prand tl number
Goldstein<4 ) reported liquid temperature reversal
in the horizontal parallel plates. This phenome-
non was also observed in the present experiment
near the edges of the thermal boundary layers at
Ra = 7.8 x 10 8 and Ra = 3.4 x 10 7 . Especially it
was markedly observed near the edge of the cold-
surface-side thermal boundary layer. These Ra
are fairly higher than the value at which tem-
perature reversal disappeared for the case of
horizontal parallel plates reported by Chu &
Goldstein. They revealed that the cause of the
liquid temperature reversal in horizontal parallel
-44-
Vol. 25, No. 3 (Mar. 1988)
J.o
Ra ~7
• 7. 1x10 9
o 7.8xJ08
"J.4 xJ07
0:: o.s
'N
0 L....,___.__,__...L...l;l;·\.~"U'=ol............... j
o o.z o.4 o.s o.a J.o
(T- Tc)/AT
Fig. 7 Vertical distributions of average
liquid temperature
plates was hot and cold 'stable blobs' which
stayed near cold and hot surfaces, respectively.
In the present experiment, however, as is des-
cribed later in Sec. ill-3, 'stable blobs' could not
be observed. For relatively low Ra, hot liquid
could reach near the top of the hemisphere as
shown in Fig. 6 and the hot liquid flowed down-
ward at the edge of the thermal boundary layer
along the inner surface of the hemisphere. On the
other hand, cold liquid was supplied on the hot
surface by the downward flow along the inner
surface of the hemisphere as is described in
Sec. ill-3. Therefore, these flows of the hot and
cold liquid near the cold and hot surfaces might
cause liquid temperature reversal at the edge of
the thermal boundary layer. In a hemisphere,
upward flow was formed in the middle of the
hemisphere by the rising of the hot thermal
plumes as is subsequently shown in Photo. 1 (b).
With the aid of the flow, hot liquid might reach
the top of the hemisphere and gave rise to the
liquid temperature reversal even for higher Ra
than the Ra above which temperature reversal
disappeared for the case of horizontal parallel
plates. This upward flow of the hot liquid might
be the cause that non-dimensional bulk tem-
perature was higher than 0.5 at relatively low Ra
shown in Fig. 7.
Figure 8 shows plot of non-dimensional
maximum distances where hot and cold thermal
plumes can be distinguished from the surround-
ing liquid against Ra with Pr range 6 <Pr < 860.
The distances were estimated from the liquid
temperature traces measured at various distances
-45-
259
from both surfaces. Open and solid circles cor-
respond to the hot and cold thermal plumes
respectively. When the hot thermal plumes reach
the cold surface, Zmax = R. Therefore using Eq.
( 3 ), Zmax/O can be written as
Zmax/o=R/o=2Nu=0,471 Ra"· 212 • ( 4)
Equation ( 4) is shown in the figure by the solid
line. The value Zmax/O increased with Ra within
the range below Ra- 5 x 10 8 . And Eq. ( 4 )
agreed well with the experimental results for Ra
~ 5 x 10 8 . Then Zmax/O took almost constant
value of 50-60 for Ra > I x I 0 9 . The hot ther-
mal plumes could not reach the cold surface any
more for Ra;;;; I x 10 9 . Therefore, the tempera-
ture reversal would disappear above Ra- I x
10 9 . Non-dimensional maximum distance Zmax/O
of the cold thermal plume was considerably
smaller than that of hot thermal plume. As
shown in Fig. 8, the cold thermal plume seems to
be disappeared below Ra- 1 x 10 7 . This value,
however, might depend on Pr.
10 3r - - - , . - r - -....~r---.---,---,----j
o Hot plume
• Cold plume
~
i'
N 1Q
• I
.'• .
""
•
•
10'
Ra
Fig. 8 Plot of maximum distances where hot
and cold thermal plumes can be dis-
tinguished from the surrounding liquid
against Rayleigh number
3. Flow Observation
Flow patterns in the hemisphere were observ-
ed by the flow visualization experiment. Photo-
graph I shows the flow patterns in a hemisphere
at Ra = 2.6 x 10 6 with 78,0 aqueous glycerine. In
the original photograph, green, blue and brown
regions can be distinguished. They correspond to
the temperature regions of about 30°C, above
30°C and below 30°(, respectively. The ex-
260 J. Nuc/. Sci. Techno/.,

posure time of Photo. I (a) was 0.5 s. Hot ther-
mal plumes could be seen rising up from the hot
surface. Hot thermal plume was generated main-
ly at the center region of the hot surface. The
exposure time of Photo. I (b) was 4 s and other
experimental conditions were the same as Photo.
I (a). Photograph I shows the existence of a
circulating flow in the hemisphere, i.e. upward
flow at the middle region of the hemisphere and
downward flow along the inner surface of the
hemisphere. Cold liquid was continuously suppli-
ed on the hot surface by the downward flow and
it flowed towards the center of the hot surface,
then it rose upward with the hot thermal plumes
at the center of the hot surface. The top of the
hemisphere. therefore, was a stagnation point.
The thickness of low temperature liquid was thin
along the inner hemispherical surface and fairly
thick on the hot surface except the center region
where hot thermal plumes were mainly released.
Velocity of the rising hot thermal plumes was 2
~ 5 times higher than that of the surrounding
liquid. Photograph 2 shows a flow pattern at Ra
= 2.9 x I 0 7 with water. Small irregular structure
could be observed in the flow. Large scale circulat-
ing flow, however. still existed in the hemisphere.
Flow pattern for higher Ra could not be observ-
ed because the size of the hemisphere was small.

(b) Circulating flow (exposure time 4 s)

Ra = 2.6 x 10 6 , Liquid: 78;"baqueous ~;lycerinc

Photo. I (a), (b) Flow and temperature visualization in hemisphere

-46.
Vol. 25, No. 3 (Mar. 1988)
However, the result that hot thermal plumes
could not reach the top of the hemisphere at Ra
> 1 x 10 9 suggests that the circulating flow
vanishes at Ra > 1 x 10 9 . Therefore it seemed that
the irregular structure increased with Ra and the
hot thermal plumes would be mixed with sur-
rounding liquid and would not be able to reach
Ra = 2.9 x 10 7
Photo. 2 Flow and temperature visualization in hemisphere
In the case of horizontal parallel plate, there is
no continuously circulating flow and the release
frequency of the hot and cold thermal plumes
should be equal. On the other hand for the case
of the hemisphere, as seen from these photo-
graphs, there was downward flow along the hemi-
spherical inner shell. The existence of the down-
ward flow considerably diminished the frequency
of the cold thermal plumes.
IV. CONCLUSION
Natural convection in a hemisphere was studied
with bottom surface heated and hemispherical
surface cooled. Two kinds of experiment -heat
transfer and flow visualization experiments-
were performed. Four kinds of liquid were used
as working fluids. The range of Ra and Pr in each
experiment were 9 x 106 <Ra<7 x 10 9 and 6<
Pr < 860 for the former experiment, and 2 x 10 5
<Ra <3 x 10 7 and 6 <Pr<860 for the latter
experiment.
The following conclusions were obtained :
(1) Average heat transfer rate could be cor-
related by the empirical relation of Eq. ( 2 )-
The exponent of Ra in Eq. ( 2 ), 0.242 was
261
near the top of the hemisphere at high Ra. The
'stable blobs' of hot and cold liquids observed by
Chu & Goldstein(6 ) at low Ra (Ra < 4.8 x 10 5 )
were not observed near both surfaces. This might
be due to the existence of continuous flow near
the hot and cold surfaces.
Liquid :Water (exposure time 4 s)
close to the value of the laminar natural
convection, 0.25 in vertical parallel plates.
(2) The release frequency of the hot thermal
plumes was considerably higher than that of
the cold thermal plumes. For high Ra tem-
perature fluctuation due to the hot and cold
thermal plumes was localized close to both
surfaces. For low Ra, however, temperature
fluctuation due to hot thermal plume reach-
ed near the top of the hemisphere.
(3) Liquid temperature reversal was observed
near the thermal boundary layers at low Ra.
This might be due to the fact that hot ther-
mal plume reached near the top of the hemi-
sphere flowed downward at the edge of the
thermal boundary layer along the inner sur-
face of the hemisphere and cold liquid was
supplied on the hot surface by the down-
ward flow. The existence of the downward
flow considerably suppresses the generation
of the cold thermal plume.
(4) Hot thermal plume rose up to z/0= 50-
60 at the highest. This indicated that hot
thermal plume could not reach the cold sur-
face above Ra- 1 x 10 9 and liquid tempera-
-47-
262 J. Nucl. Sci. Teclznol.,

ture reversal disappeared above this Rayleigh convection in high Prandtl number liquid at high
Rayleigh number, ibid., 12, 1491- I 510 (1969).
number. ( 4) CHU, T. Y., GOLDSTEIN, R.J.: Turbulent convec-
tion in a horizontal layer of water, J. Fluid Mech.,
[NOMENCLATURE) 60, 141-159 (1973).
( 5) TRELF ALL, D.C. : Free convection in low-tem-
H : Height of enclosure
perature gaseous helium, ibid., 6 7, 17- 28 (1975).
L : Length of enclosure ( 6) FITZJARRALD, D.E.: An experimental study of
g : Gravitational constant turbulent convection of air, ibid., 73, 693- 719
Nu : Nusselt number =Rq!L1T (1976).
Nu : Average Nusselt number (7) TANAKA, H., MIYATA, H.: Turbulent natural
convection in a horizontal water layer heated from
Pr : Prandtl number
below, Int. J. HeatMassTransfer, 23,1273-1281
q : Heat flux (1980).
R : Radius of hemisphere ( 8) KRAICHNAN, R.H.: Turbulent thermal convec-
Ra : Rayleigh number =gfiAT R'/)11: tion at arbitrary Prandtl number, Pl!ys. Fluids, 11,
1374-1389 (1962).
T : Temperature ( 9) LONG, R.R.: Relation between Nusselt number
T •• : Local average liquid temperature and Rayleigh number in turbulent thermal convec-
T b : Bulk temperature tion, J. Fluid Mech., 73, 445-451 (1976).
T, : Temperature of cold surface (10) MacGREGOR, R.K., EMERY, A.F.: Free convec-
T, : Temperature of hot surface tion through vertical plane layers-moderate and
high Prandtl number fluids, Trans. ASME. Ser., C,
T max : Local maximum liquid temperature 91' 391 ~ 403 (1969).
T min : Local minimum liquid temperature (ll) SEKI, N., FUKUSAKO, S., INABA, H.: Visual ob-
T + = T max- T av servation of natural convective flow in a narrow
T _ =T a•- T min vertical cavity, J. Fluid Mech., 84, 695- 704
(1978).
AT = T,-T,
(12) SEKI, N., FUKUSAKO, S., YAMAGUCHI, A.: An
z : Vertical distance from hot surface experimental study of free convective heat transfer
Zmax : Maximum distance where hot and cold in a parallelogrammic enclosure, Trans. A SME,
thermal plume can be distinguished from Ser. C, 105,433-439 (1983).
surrounding liquid. (13) SEKI, N., FUKUSAKO, S., INABA, S.: Heat trans-
fer in an enclosed cavity with a relatively small
fi : Coefficient of thermal expansion aspect-ratio, Bull. Fac. Eng., Hokkaido Univ., No.
o : Equivalent heat conduction thickness 87, I~ 10 (1978).
Rf2Nu (14) EMERY, A., CHU, N.C. : Heat transfer across ver-
tC :Thermal diffusivity tical layers, Trans. ASME, Ser. C, 87, 110-116
(1965).
1.1 : Kinematic viscosity
(IS) TICHY, J., GADGIL, A. : High Rayleigh number
). : Thermal conductivity laminar convection in low aspect ratio enclosures
with adiabatic horizontal walls and differentially
ACKNOWLEDGMENT heated vertical walls, ibid., 104, 103~ 110 (1982).
(16) FLACK, R.D., KONOPNICKI, T.I., ROOKE, J.H.:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the sup- The measurement of natural convective heat trans-
port of Dr. H. Kawamura in planning of this fer in triangular enclosures, ibid., 101, 648-654
work. (1979).
(17) SABZEVARI, A., OSTRACH, S.: Experimental
studies of natural convection in a horizontal
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