16 Feb 2025

CL 242 Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer

Forced Convection
Internal Flow
Recap
➢ Forced Convection – External & Internal Flow
➢ Dimensionless Nu expressions
▪ Analytical solution
▪ Experimental correlations
➢ Nu → h → q”
➢ External flow (Laminar, Turbulent)
▪ Flat plate
▪ Cylinder
▪ Sphere
▪ Collection of cylinders or spheres

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 2

Internal Flow
➢ Pipes, Ducts, Tubes

➢ Recap: Boundary layer in External Flow

▪ Boundary layer: viscous effects important
▪ Outside: Uniform, inviscid flow

➢ Internal Flow?

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 3

Internal Flow – Differences
➢ Entry Velocity Profile
▪ Larger cross section area
▪ Radial variation is negligible
▪ Nearly uniform
▪ Examples
• Reservoir exit
• Sudden contraction
➢ Downstream: Parabolic velocity profile (laminar)
▪ fluid velocity changes from zero at the wall to a
maximum at the pipe center

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 4

Boundary Layer in Pipe Flow
➢ Very close to entry
▪ Similar to flat plate
➢ Bounded geometry
▪ Annular closing up of inviscid region
▪ Bounded BL = Radius of pipe
➢ Entrance region
▪ Growth of BL
▪ Partially flat velocity profile
▪ hydrodynamic entry length Cross sectional
development of BL

➢ Fully developed region

▪ Parabolic profile
▪ Does not change along axial direction

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 5

Flow Conditions
➢ Reynolds number
➢ um or Vavg is the mean fluid velocity over the tube
cross section and D is the tube diameter.
➢ Laminar for Re < 2300,
➢ Fully turbulent for Re > 10,000, and transitional in
between.
➢ For laminar flow the hydrodynamic entry length
may be obtained from:

➢ For turbulent flow:

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 6

Fully Developed Velocity Profile
➢ Mean Velocity

➢ Solving the x-momentum equation – Velocity profile

(laminar flow): u(x, r) = u(r)

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 7

Thermal Boundary Layer
➢ When there is temperature difference between the pipe and fluid – thermal boundary layer
develops

➢ For laminar flow, thermal entry length:

➢ Boundary Conditions
▪ Constant temperature surface
▪ Constant heat flux surface
Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 8
Mean Temperature
➢ The absence of a fixed free stream temperature necessitates using a
mean (or bulk) temperature.
➢ Heat Rate
Mean temperatures

➢ The energy transported by the fluid through a cross section in actual

flow must be equal to the energy that would be transported through
the same cross section if the fluid were at a constant temperature Tm .

Velocity weighted mean

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 9

Fully Developed Temperature Profile
➢ Fully developed velocity profile:

➢ Fully developed temperature profile?

▪ Can temperature be unvarying with x, like fully-developed velocity?
• No, so long as heat q is non-zero
• Fluid temperature must continue to change with x, not 0
➢ Dimensionless temperature difference can!
▪ Actual temperature T itself can change with x, but not the
dimensionless temperature difference
▪ the relative shape of the profile no longer changes and the flow is
said to be thermally fully developed.

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 10

Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient
➢ The local heat flux:

➢ For fully developed flow:

➢ For thermally fully developed flow of a fluid with constant properties, h is a constant –
defines the entry length
➢ At the tube entrance, thermal boundary layer thickness is zero h is extremely large at x = 0.
➢ h decays rapidly as the thermal boundary layer develops, until the constant value
associated with fully developed conditions is reached.
Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 11
Variation of Mean Temperature
➢ Radially averaged
➢ Velocity weighted
➢ Variation along the flow important to understand the
extent of heat transfer

➢ 2 boundary conditions:
▪ Constant surface temperature
▪ Constant heat flux

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 12

Mean Temperature for Constant Heat Flux
➢ Constant Surface heat flux

➢ Integrating; For constant heat flux:

➢ Surface Temperature:

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 13

Mean Temperature for Constant Heat Flux

➢ Tm varies linearly with x along the

tube
➢ Tm – Ts is initially small (due to the
large value of h near the entrance)
➢ Tm – Ts increases with increasing x
due to the decrease in h
➢ Tm – Ts is constant as h is constant
in fdr

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 14

Mean Temperature for Constant Surface Temperature
➢ Constant Surface Temperature

(Ts − Tm) decays in an exponential fashion

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 15
Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD)
➢ Constant Surface Temperature

➢ q is complicated by the nature of the temperature decay

form of Newton’s law of cooling for

the entire tube

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 16

Overall HT Coefficient
➢ In many applications, it is the temperature of an external
fluid, rather than the tube surface temperature, is fixed
➢ h is replaced by U
▪ External convection
▪ Conduction of tube wall
▪ Internal convection

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 17

Nu Correlations
 Heat Transfer in Fully Developed Laminar Flow
➢ Energy equation:

➢ Solve for the temperature distribution for the case of constant surface heat flux.

➢ For constant Surface Temperature

Properties evaluated at Tm

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 19

 Heat Transfer in Entry Region for Laminar Flow
➢ If either or both velocity and temperature
profiles are not fully developed, the flow is
said to be in the entry region
➢ Thermal entry length
▪ Fully developed velocity
• When unheated starting length
• High Pr
➢ Combined entry length (velocity and
temperature develop simultaneously)
➢ Nu plotted against inverse Graetz number
➢ Correlations are also available Thermal entry
length

Graetz Number Combined entry

length

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 20

Turbulent Flow in Circular Tubes
➢ Dittus–Boelter equation
C C n n
(heating) (cooling) (heating) (cooling)

Original 0.0243 0.0265 0.4 0.3

Popularised 0.023 0.4 0.3

➢ Turbulent flow
Re > 10,000 Heating: Ts > Tm
Cooling: Ts < Tm
➢ Wide range of Prandtl
0.6 < Pr < 160
➢ Fully developed region

➢ Properties at mean temperature

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 21

Turbulent Flow in Circular Tubes
➢ Sieder & Tate

➢ Used when large temperature variation

➢ Wider range of Pr
0.7 < Pr < 16,700
➢ Properties at mean temperature except viscosity
at surface temperature

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 22

Non – Circular Tubes
➢ Many of the circular tube results may be applied Flow area

by using an effective diameter as the

characteristic length
➢ Effective or Hydraulic diameter

Wetted perimeter

➢ Use Pipe-flow formulae replacing pipe diameter

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 23

Heat Transfer Enhancement
➢ Several options are available for enhancing heat transfer associated with internal flows.
➢ Enhancement may be achieved by increasing the convection coefficient and/or by
increasing the convection surface area

Tube inserts Twisted tapes Finned pipes Ribbed tubes

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 24

Summary
➢ Nu → h → q”
➢ Thermal boundary layer
➢ Temperature (Tm and Ts) variations
➢ Nu for Internal flow (Laminar, Turbulent)
▪ Fully developed flow
▪ Entry length
• Thermal entry length
• Combined entry length

Ojus Mohan & P. Sunthar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay 25