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Principles of Convection

Convection vs. Conduction

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• Experience shows that convection heat transfer

strongly depends on the fluid properties:
dynamic viscosity (), thermal conductivity (k),
density (), specific heat (Cp),
flow properties: fluid velocity (V), geometry and
the roughness of the solid surface, in addition
to the type of fluid flow
(such as being laminar or turbulent)

The convection heat transfer coefficient, varies along the flow (or x-) direction.

The average or mean convection heat transfer coefficient for a surface in such
cases is determined by properly averaging the local convection heat transfer
coefficients over the entire surface

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Types of Flows
• Viscous vs. inviscid
• Internal vs. external
• Compressible vs. incompressible
• Laminar vs. turbulent
• Natural vs. forced
• Steady vs. unsteady
• Multi-dimensional

Nusselt Number

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Velocity Boundary Layer

Development of the velocity profile: circular pipe

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The fluids that obey the linear relationship above

are called Newtonian fluids

Kinematic viscosity

The friction coefficient is an important parameter in heat transfer studies, it is directly

related to the heat transfer coefficient and the power requirements of the pump/fan.

Thermal Boundary Layer

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Prandtl Number

Laminar Boundary Layer on a Flat Plate

• Momentum equation of the laminar boundary layer with constant
properties

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Energy equation of the boundary layer

1. Incompressible steady flow

2. Constant viscosity, thermal conductivity, and specific heat
3. Negligible heat conduction in the direction of flow (x
direction

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The viscous-shear force is the product of the shear-stress and the

area dx

and the distance through which it moves per unit time in respect to
the elemental control volume dx dy is

This is the energy equation of the laminar boundary layer.

The left side represents the net transport of energy into the
control volume, and the right side represents the sum of the
net heat conducted out of the control volume and the net
viscous work done on the element.

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Momentum equation for constant

pressure

The Thermal Boundary Layer

T  C1  C 2 y  C3 y 2  C 4 y 3

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T  C1  C 2 y  C3 y 2  C 4 y 3

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Flow over a flat plate:

Derivation of expression for the heat transfer
coefficient

Temperature profile in the

thermal boundary layer

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• Obtaining an expression for t

• Obtained by an integral analysis of the energy
equation for the boundary layer

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integral energy equation of the boundary layer

• Further Assumptions:
neglecting the viscous-dissipation term; this term is very small
unless the velocity of the flow field becomes very large
hydrodynamic boundary layer develops from the leading edge of
the plate, while heating does not begin until x = x0

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where

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Boundary
conditions:

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For the
case where x0 = 0

For a plate where

heating starts at x = x0

For the plate heated over the entire length

Film temperature

Constant Heat Flux

Earlier relations are applicable to fluids having Prandtl numbers between 0.6 and
50.
For very low Prandtl numbers like liquid metals or to high Prandtl-number fluids
like heavy oils or silicones
Churchill and Ozoe Correlation

For the constant-heat-flux case, 0.3387 is changed to 0.4637 and 0.0468 is

changed to 0.0207. Properties are still evaluated at the film temperature.

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TURBULENT-BOUNDARY-LAYER
HEAT TRANSFER

Turbulent Heat Transfer

For Reynolds Number from 5 x 105 to 107

For Reynolds Number from 107 to 109

Local turbulent Heat Transfer:

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Turbulent Flow: Constant Heat Flux

The local Nusselt number is only about 4% higher than for the
isothermal surface

Air at 27◦C and 1 atm flows over a flat plate at a speed of 2 m/s. the
plate is heated over its entire length to a
temperature of 60◦C. Calculate the heat transferred in (a) the first 20
cm of the plate and (b) the first 40 cm of the plate.

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Air at 20◦C and 1 atm flows over a flat plate at 35 m/s. The plate is 75
cm long and is maintained at 60◦C. Assuming unit depth in the z
direction, calculate the heat transfer from the plate.

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Relation between fluid friction and heat transfer

Stanton number

Reynolds-Colburn analogy

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