Convective heat transfer in weak electrolytes under the action of electrolytic currents

Abstract

Electrolytic currents are produced in a weak electrolyte giving rise to the generation of bubbles, the variation in the rate of heat transfer from a heated platinum wire to the surrounding electrolyte under the action of these currents has been studied. The enhancement of heat transfer with increase in the temperature difference (Δθ) between the heating surface and the surrounding electrolyte and with increasing bath temperatures has been graphically exhibited. It is found that whereas a single maximum is obtained in the (h/h₀) versus log/graphs for different values of Δθ at lower electrolyte temperatures (h and h_o are the heat-transfer coefficients in the presence and absence of electrolytic currents respectively and I is the strength of the electrolytic current), there appear two maxima for (h/h₀) when the electrolyte temperature is raised sufficiently above the room temperature (>45°C in the present experiments). An attempt has been made to investigate the nature of these maxima and to offer a suitable explanation for them.