INTRODUCTION TO CONVECTIVE

HEAT TRANSFER HEAT TRANSFER

Prabal Talukdar Prabal Talukdar
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
IIT Delhi
E-mail: prabal@mech.iitd.ac.in p
P.Talukdar/Mech-IITD
Introduction to Convection
Heat transfer through a fluid is by
convection in the presence of bulk fluid p
motion and by conduction in the absence
of it. Therefore, conduction in a fluid can be
viewed as the limiting case of convection,
correspondingto the case of quiescent corresponding to the case of quiescent
fluid
) T T ( h q
&
2
m / W ) T T ( h q
s conv
= m / W
) T T ( hA Q
s s conv
=
&
W
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An implication of the no-slip and the no-temperature jump conditions is
that heat transfer fromthe solid surface to the fluid layer adjacent to the that heat transfer from the solid surface to the fluid layer adjacent to the
surface is by pure conduction, since the fluid layer is motionless, and can
be expressed as
) m / W (
T
k q q
2

& &
) m / W (
y
k q q
0 y
fluid cond conv
=

= =
conduction heat transfer from the conductionheattransferfromthe
solidsurfacetothefluidlayer
adjacenttothesurface
Convectionheattransferfroma
solidsurfacetoafluid
=
Heat is then convected
away from the surface as a
result of fluid motion
T
k

result of fluid motion.
) C . m / W (
T T
y
k
h
2
s
0 y
fluid

=
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Nusselt Number Nusselt Number
T h q =
&
T h q
conv

L
T
k q
cond

=
&
Nusselt number represents the enhancement
L
Nu
k
hL
T
k
T h
q
q
d
conv
= =

=
&
&
p
of heat transfer through a fluid layer as a result of
convection relative to conduction across the same
fluid layer.
hL
k
L
k
q
cond
The larger the Nusselt number, the more effective
the convection.
k
hL
Nu
c
=
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Nu = 1 for a fluid layer represents heat transfer
across the layer by pure conduction
Nusselt Number Nusselt Number
Wilhelm Nusselt, a German engineer, was born
November 25, 1882, at Nurnberg, Germany.
Nusselt studied mechanical engineering at the Munich
Technical University where he got his doctorate in 1907 He taught in Dresden Technical University, where he got his doctorate in 1907. He taught in Dresden
from 1913 to 1917.
He completed his doctoral thesis on the " Conductivity of Insulating
Materials" in 1907, using the " Nusselt Sphere" for his experiments.
In 1915, Nusselt published his pioneering paper: The Basic Laws of Heat
Transfer, in which he first proposed the dimensionless groups now Transfer, in which he first proposed the dimensionless groups now
known as the principal parameters in the similarity theory of heat
transfer.
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Different types of flow Different types of flow
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Velocity Boundary Layer
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) m / N (
u
2
s

=
Surface shear stress
where the constant of proportionality is called the
dynamic viscosity of the fluid, whose unit is
) (
y
0 y
s
=

y y
kg/m . s (or equivalently, N .s/m
2
, or Pa.s, or poise =
0.1 Pa.s).
The ratio of dynamic viscosity to density appears frequently. For
i thi ti i i th ki ti i it d i convenience, this ratio is given the name kinematic viscosity and is
expressed as /.
Two common units of kinematic viscosity are m
2
/s and stoke (1 stoke
= 1 cm
2
/s = 0.0001 m
2
/s). )
) m / N (
2
V
C
2
2
f s

=
The viscosity of a fluid is a
measure of its resistance to
flow, and it is a strong
function of temperature
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Experimentallydetermined
2
function of temperature
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Thermal Boundary Layer
The thickness of the thermal boundary layer
t
at any location along the surface is
defined as the distance fromthe surface at which the temperature difference T T defined as the distance from the surface at which the temperature difference T -T
s
equals 0.99(T

-T
s
).
Note that for the special case of T
s
= 0, we have T = 0.99T

at the outer edge of the

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p
s
g
thermal boundary layer, which is analogous to u = 0.99u

for the velocity boundary

layer.
The thickness of the thermal
boundary layer increases in the
flow direction
The convection heat transfer rate anywhere along the surface is directly
related to the temperature gradient at that location. T
Therefore, the shape of the temperature profile in the thermal boundary
layer dictates the convection heat transfer
Noting that the fluid velocity have a strong influence on the temperature
profile, the development of the velocity boundary layer relative to the
thermal boundary layer will have a strong effect on the convection heat
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thermal boundary layer will have a strong effect on the convection heat
transfer.
Prandtl number Prandtl number
It is named after Ludwig
Prandtl, who introduced the
concept of boundarylayer in concept of boundary layer in
1904 and made significant
contributions to boundary layer
theory.
The Prandtl numbers of gases are
about 1, which indicates that both
momentum and heat dissipate
through the fluid at about the same
rate. Heat diffuses very quickly in
liquidmetals (Pr <<1) and very
Consequently the thermal boundary layer
is much thicker for liquid metals and much
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liquid metals (Pr <<1) and very
slowly in oils (Pr >> 1) relative
to momentum
thinner for oils relative to the velocity
boundary layer.
Ludwig Prandtl Ludwig Prandtl
(1875-1953)
Prandtl was born in Freising, near Munich, g, ,
in 1875.
He entered the Technische Hochschule
Munich in 1894 and graduated with a Ph.D.
under guidance of Professor August under guidance of Professor August
Foeppl in six years
In 1901 Prandtl became a professor of fluid
mechanics at the Technical school in
Hannover, now the Technical University
Hannover
Doctoral students: Ackeret, Heinrich
Blasius, Busemann, Nikuradse,
Pohlhausen, Schlichting, Tietjens, Tollmien,
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von Krmn, and many others (85 in total)
Laminar / Turbulent Flow Laminar / Turbulent Flow
The intense mixing of the fluid in turbulent
flow as a result of rapid fluctuations
enhances heat and momentum transfer e a ces ea a d o e u a s e
between fluid particles, which
increases the friction force on the surface
and the convection heat transfer
rate
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rate.
Reynolds number Reynolds number
BritishscientistOsbornReynolds(1842
1912)
The transition fromlaminar to turbulent The transition from laminar to turbulent
flow depends on the surface geometry,
surface roughness, free-stream velocity,
surface temperature, and type of fluid, p yp
among other things.
After exhaustive experiments in the 1880s,
Osborn Reynolds discovered that the flow
Note that kinematic viscosity
Osborn Reynolds discovered that the flow
regime depends mainly on the ratio of the
inertia forces to viscous forces in the fluid
Note that kinematic viscosity
has the unit m
2
/s, which is
identical to the unit of thermal
diffusivity, and can be viewed
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as viscous diffusivity or
diffusivity for momentum.
At large Reynolds numbers, the
inertia forces, which are inertia forces, which are
proportional to the density and the
velocity of the fluid, are large
relative to the viscous forces,
and thus the viscous forces cannot
prevent the random and rapid
fluctuations of the fluid.
At small Reynolds numbers,
however, the viscous forces are
large eno gh to o ercome the large enough to overcome the
inertia forces and to keep the fluid
in line. Thus the flow is turbulent
in the first case and laminar in the
The Reynolds number at which the flow
becomes turbulent is called the
critical Reynolds number
in the first case and laminar in the
second.
For flow over a flat plate, the generally accepted value of the critical Reynolds
number is Re =Vx / = u x / =5 x 10
5
where x is the distance fromthe
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number is Re
cr
Vx
cr
/ u

x
cr
/ 5 x 10 , where x
cr
is the distance from the
leading edge of the plate at which transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs