Abstract

<jats:p>Heat transfer by convection from isothermal rotating cones is investigated experimentally by measuring the sublimation rate from naphthalene-coated cones and using the analogy between heat and mass transfer. Measurements are made for a range of conditions from entirely laminar flow to conditions when the outer 70% of the surface area is covered by turbulent flow. Mass-transfer measurements for laminar flow over cones of vertex angles 180°, 150°, 120° and 90° are in good agreement with the theoretical prediction. For turbulent flow, experimental results for cones of the above vertex angles also agree very well with the semi-empirical analogy calculations for the disk case. A different heat- and mass-transfer relationship with the rotational Reynolds number is observed in the measurements on the 60° cone, and is believed to be due to a change of flow characteristics. The instability and the transition of flows over different cone models are also discussed.</jats:p>