The special features of heat transfer in a supercritical fluid: Mathematical and physical modeling results

The special features of heat transfer in a supercritical fluid were considered for the example of two problems, those of Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a horizontal layer heated from below and nonstationary heat transfer in a closed volume with heated boundaries. Isentropic equilibrium of a compressible medium that obeyed the van der Waals equation of state was studied. The calculation results were generalized, and the special features of convective heat transfer in a supercritical fluid beyond the stability threshold of hydrostatic equilibrium were discussed. The results of numerical and experimental studies of the relaxation of density and temperature nonuniformities as the temperature of volume walls changed were presented. The calculations were performed using the complete system of Navier-Stokes equations and the equation of state of an ideal or van der Waals gas.