Numerical Analysis of Convective Instabilities in a Transient Short-Hot-Wire Setup for Measurement of Liquid Thermal Conductivity

Numerical simulation has been used to investigate the effects of natural convection on measurements of the thermal conductivity of fluids by transient hot-wire methods. Comparison of the numerical data with the experimental results obtained with a custom-built setup exploiting a short-wire geometry allows fixing an operationally useful time scale, where convective effects can be safely neglected.