Investigations of Sparging as a Method for Promoting Cooling Pond Heat Transfer

Abstract

Destruction of the thin subsurface thermal boundary layer at an air-water interface can be accomplished by relatively low rates of aeration and can result in substantially improved thermal performance when water temperatures are high. The heating and saturating of rising air bubbles can also provide a significant improvement in overall thermal performance when water temperatures and aeration rates are sufficiently great. At 80°C, improvements of ?20% appear possible with average aeration rates <1 mm s?1.