Abstract
An experimental study has been performed to investigate the influence of density inversion of water on the transient free convection b ehavior in a cooled circular tube. The experiments were carried out under the condition that the tube-wall temperature was successfully decreased at a uniform rate. A holographic interferometry technique was adopted to measure the time-dependent distributions of the temperature in the tube. It was observed that the temperature-distribution characteristics were to a great extent changed by the cooling rate of the tube wall, along with the time-dependent sequential flow patterns. The heat-transfer characteristics along the inner tube wall were also extensively determined.
