K. Velusamy et Vk. Garg, LEADING-EDGE EFFECT DURING TRANSIENT BUOYANCY INDUCED FLOW ADJACENT TO A VERTICAL CYLINDER, International journal of heat and mass transfer, 36(7), 1993, pp. 1853-1858
The rate of propagation of the leading edge effect (LEE) during transi
ent natural convection adjacent to a vertical solid cylinder is estima
ted from five different criteria. The cylinder has an appreciable ther
mal capacity and is subjected to a sudden heat generation. Numerical r
esults are presented for a wide range of cylinder radii and heat flux
values for two fluids, air and water. It is found that unlike the case
of a flat plate, there is no unique criterion which would always esti
mate the fastest rate of propagation of LEE in water. However in air,
the criterion due to Brown and Riley (J. Fluid Mech. 59, 225-237 (1973
)) always predicts the fastest rate of propagation. Also, the effect o
f cylinder radius on the rate at which the LEE propagates through diff
erent fluids is different. For identical conditions, the LEE propagate
s faster in air than in water, as expected. Present results obtained b
y dropping the curvature terms in the governing equations match very w
ell with previous analytical results for a flat plate.