Heat transfer in a laminar separation bubble affected by oscillating external flow

A three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of passive heat transfer in a Laminar Separation Bubble (LSB) over a flat plate affected by oscillating external flow is presented. The oscillation imposes a periodicity which is employed for phase-averaging. The flat plate is kept at a uniform, low temperature. The local Nusselt number, Nu, is determined as a function of phase. In the dead-air region of the bubble Nu is found to be relatively small, while it peaks in the recirculation region where hot outer fluid gets entrained and is transported towards the flat plate. Each period a new separation bubble is formed, that merges with the old separation bubble. The reverse flow inside the separation bubble reaches values of up to 60% of the local free-stream velocity, which is sufficient to make the separation bubble absolutely unstable such that self-sustained turbulence can exist. For the phase-averaged flow, neither the turbulent viscosity hypothesis nor the temperature gradient-diffusion hypothesis is found to hold.