Charge injection enhanced natural convection heat transfer in horizontal concentric annuli filled with a dielectric liquid

• Natural convection heat transfer is enhanced by imposing a DC electric field.
• Existence of a threshold of the electric driving parameter.
• The independence of heat transfer rate on Ra for high electric driving parameter.
• Numerical validation for the independence of heat transfer on Ra.

The natural convection heat transfer in a highly insulating liquid contained between two horizontal concentric cylinders is shown by two-dimensional numerical simulations to be noticeably enhanced by imposing a direct current electric field. This augmentation of heat transfer is due to the radial flow motion induced by unipolar injection of ions. It is found that there exists a threshold of the electric driving parameter T, above which the heat transfer enhancement due to the electric effect becomes significant. For relatively small T values, the mean Nusselt numbers are closely related to the flow pattern and the Rayleigh number Ra. In addition, for sufficiently high T values, the flow is fully dominated by the Coulomb force, and thus the heat transfer rate no long depends on Ra.