HEAT-TRANSFER IN THE CRITICAL BOUNDARY-LAYER

In near-critical liquids, thermal advection enhances the mass and heat transfer; near a boundary the advective heat conductivity depends on the distance from the boundary. We study the temperature profile in th e boundary layer of a near-critical liquid with a temperature gradient . The thermal resistance of this critical boundary layer increases nea r the critical point; the difference delta T between the actual bounda ry temperature and the one obtained by linear extrapolation from the b ulk yields a scaling law delta T = const x (T - T-c)(0.08). (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V.