Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Characteristics in a Swirling Impinging Jet

An experimental study on heat transfer and fluid flow has been carried out for a swirling round impinging jet. A thermosensitive liquid crystal sheet was used for the heat transfer measurements and the three velocity components were measured with LDV in the stagnation region for cases where the Swirl number Sw = 0.0, 0.22, and 0.45 at the Reynolds number Re = 8100. The formation of recirculation flow due to a swirl near the impinging wall was found to deteriorate the heat transfer coefficient in the stagnation region and results in a more uniform distribution of the Nusselt number with an increasing Swirl number. The heat transfer mechanism of the swirling impinging jet is discussed based on the flow characteristics of the mean velocities and turbulence quantities. (C) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.