Enhancement of Natural Convection by Impingement of Corona Wind

The enhancement of heat transfer by corona wind reported in the literature has ranged from 16% to 2500%. It is suspected that such a huge variation has to do with the measurement of temperatures involved. The objective of the present study is to reevaluate the heat transfer enhancement by such technique. To accurately assess the heat transfer enhancement, a thermal imaging system has been used for temperature measurement. A corona wind generator is used to produce air jet directly impinging the heat transfer surface (which is a grounded copper plate of 10 cm by 10 cm uniformly heated by a thermofoil heater). The applied voltage varies from 8 kV to 12 kV with two gap distances of 3 cm and 4 cm between the electrodes.