Heat transfer around a circular cylinder in liquid sodium crossflow

The present paper describes the results of an experimental study of heat transfer to liquid sodium uniformly flowing across a heated circular cylinder. The measurements were carefully performed in the range of Reynolds number from 1,200 to 11,000 for Prandtl numbers of 0.0058 and 0.0073. A comparison is made of the present results with the theoretical estimation obtained by Grosh and Cess under the assumption of potential flow field. The latter gives about 50% higher values of heat transfer coefficient in the range of Reynolds number covered. As a result, it may be concluded that the assumption of potential flow field is inadequate for predicting the heat transfer rate even in the range of such low values of Prandtl number. (auth.)