Modeling air-water heat transfer induced by buoyant convection

The instantaneous 2D velocity field obtained at the air-water interface in previously performed direct numerical simulations (DNS) of interfacial heat transfer driven by buoyant convective instability is used to estimate the heat transfer velocity [2]. After reconstructing the three-dimensional velocity field immediately underneath the surface, a Lagrangian particle tracking method was used to assess the surface age. The surface heat transfer velocity, obtained using Danckwerts’ surface renewal model, was found to underestimate the heat transfer velocity acquired directly from the DNS data by about 16%.