MORE | Spring 2022

Flow Visualization of Laminar Mixed Convection in Transparent 3D-Printed Channels

This study investigates the spatiotemporal instabilities of mixed convection in horizontal channels through 3D printing of transparent channels and dye injection flow visualization. Flow channels are printed using a digital light processing (DLP) 3D printer and polished until they become transparent. The flow visualization technique used is the dye injection method in which a high-speed camera records the dye flow patterns representing the flow fields in the channel. We report the channel fabrication technique and the mixed convection phenomena under various flow conditions and channel aspect ratios.