Vortex ring head-on collision with a heated vertical plate

Abstract

We report experimental results of the normal impact of a vortex ring in air on a vertical heated plate at constant temperature. We address the case in which the natural convection boundary layer is laminar and the vortex ring is stable. Vortex rings are created by pushing air through a circular exit orifice of a cavity, using a piston-cylinder system. The impinging vortex ring perturbs both the thermal and dynamical boundary layers where we measure the total heat flux exchanged by the heated plate and visualize the vortex motion during the impact. This unsteady impingement process is investigated for different vortex sizes and self-induced velocities, characterized by the Reynolds number of the ring. As a result, a localized heat transfer enhancement is originated by the ring impingement, which increases with the Reynolds number.