Experimental investigation on partially filled liquid pools under combined thermal and vibrational loads

[Display omitted] •The combined thermal and vibrational loads on a liquid pool is investigated.•Single-phase convective and subcooled region of heat transfer is affected by external vibration significantly.•Effect of vibration on thermal stratification in the pool is presented in detail. The seismic excitation affects the performance of a heat exchanger submerged in a water pool. Hence, the potential effect of external vibrations on a boiling and heat transfer system is investigated in this work. The effect of horizontal vibration on heat transfer performance of a submerged heater rod has been experimentally investigated under atmospheric pressure conditions. The experimental results show that the heat transfer is enhanced by 15% with vibration in single-phase convection. Heat transfer in subcooled boiling is significantly affected by higher mode excitation frequencies. However, there is no significant influence of excitation frequency on heat transfer in the saturated boiling regime. The effect of circumferential wall temperature around the heater is investigated and a maximum temperature difference of 6.3% has been found between the top and bottom heater surface. Thermal stratification of pool water is also studied without and with external vibration. The vertical temperature difference between zone 1 and zone 2, (i.e. thermal stratification) is suppressed by 80% at excitation frequency of 6.35 Hz.