Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Pool-Boiling Heat-Transfer Enhancement on Cylindrical Surfaces with Hybrid Wettable Patterns
Published on: April 10, 2017
Experimental determination of surface heat transfer coefficient in a dry ice-ethanol cooling bath using a numerical
M V Santos1, M Sansinena2, N Zaritzky3
1Depto. de Ingenieria Química, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo en Criotecnologia de Alimentos (CONICET-UNLP), La Plata; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnicas, CABA, Argentina. mvsantosd@gmail.com.
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Dry ice-ethanol bath (-78 degree C) have been widely used in low temperature biological research to attain rapid cooling of samples below freezing temperature. The prediction of cooling rates of biological samples immersed in dry ice-ethanol bath is of practical interest in cryopreservation. The cooling rate can be obtained using mathematical models representing the heat conduction equation in transient state. Additionally, at the solid cryogenic-fluid interface, the knowledge of the surface heat transfer coefficient (h) is necessary for the convective boundary condition in order to correctly establish the mathematical problem.
Objective:
The study was to apply numerical modeling to obtain the surface heat transfer coefficient of a dry ice-ethanol bath.
Materials And Methods:
A numerical finite element solution of heat conduction equation was used to obtain surface heat transfer coefficients from measured temperatures at the center of polytetrafluoroethylene and polymethylmetacrylate cylinders immersed in a dry ice-ethanol cooling bath. The numerical model considered the temperature dependence of thermophysical properties of plastic materials used.
Results:
A negative linear relationship is observed between cylinder diameter and heat transfer coefficient in the liquid bath, the calculated h values were 308, 135 and 62.5 W/(m2K) for PMMA 1.3, PTFE 2.59 and 3.14 cm in diameter, respectively.
Conclusion:
The calculated heat transfer coefficients were consistent among several replicates; h in dry ice-ethanol showed an inverse relationship with cylinder diameter.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer I
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
Conduction, Convection and Radiation: Problem Solving
In order to solve a problem related to heat transfer, first of all, the situation needs to be examined to determine the type of heat transfer involved. This could...
Mechanism of heat transfer
Heat Flow and Specific Heat

