Proceedings of the 2009 ASME Heat Transfer Summer Conference

HT2009
July 19-23, 2009, San Francisco, California, USA

HT2009-88192
A METHOD FOR RAPID ESTIMATION OF FLUID TEMPERATURE DROP IN DUCT
FLOWS
Krishnan A. S.
Kumaraguru College of Technology
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
Owing to the persistent interest in the approximate
methods, the order of magnitude analysis is revisited in the
present work and a method is proposed for the quick estimation
of drop in temperature of a fluid flowing through a circular
duct. The principle involves judicious guessing of temperature
drop for one of the investigated cases, while the temperature
estimates for rest of the cases are deduced from the initial
guess. A problem of duct flow with widely varying inlet
temperature and mass flow rate conditions, typical of a high
altitude simulation ground test facilities for scramjet
combustors, re-entry vehicles, etc are considered which vary
from 400 K to 1200 K with corresponding mass flow rates of
300 kg/s to 0.5 kg/s. The results of this quick estimation
method portray remarkable agreement with the exit
temperatures of the fluid as predicted by solving the problem
using transient quasi-one dimensional codes and two
dimensional CFD techniques over the entire operating regime
and hence provide a conservative estimate of vital parameters
for any design exercise as well as to rate an existing system at
off-design conditions. The significant advantages of the
proposed method over the others are viz. (a) simplicity (b)
lesser computational effort and (c) reasonable accuracy, will be
elucidated in detail in this article.
INTRODUCTION
Approximate techniques play a vital role in the design of
variety of engineering systems. It assumes much more
importance with increase in the complexity of the system and
lack of open literature for similar system configurations.
Approximate techniques have a significant part in the science
of fluid flow and heat transfer. For instance, the Dimensional
Analysis, Order of Magnitude Analysis as applied to the
boundary layer, are few of the well established techniques [1].
Such techniques do continue to share its importance even today

Srinivasan K.
Defence Research and Development Laboratory
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

and also is incrementally becoming a core method of analysis

for research problems leading to even doctoral dissertations.
Mahajan [2] presented his thesis on Order of Magnitude
Physics as applied to retinal rod and density of prime numbers,
in the form of a textbook. Mendez [3] has presented the order
of magnitude scaling of complex problems and its application
to high productivity arc welding. Utturkar et al. [4] in their
research on jet formation criterion for synthetic jet actuators,
have carried out order of magnitude analysis along with
computational techniques and flow visualization. Mendez and
Ordonez [5] have developed an algorithm to obtain scaling
laws from statistical data and dimensional analysis. The
authors have also illustrated the application to three problems
including the problem of "period of the pendulum". Thus,
approximate techniques have been and continue to be one of
the prime methods of research, especially for analyzing
complex scientific problems.
More aged than the order of magnitude analysis is the
problem of fluid flow and heat transfer in ducts. Flows through
circular ducts have been a subject of study for more than a
century. Early works on this topic dates back to 19th century,
when, Osborne Reynolds [6] conducted his experiments on
water flow through transparent circular duct to study
transitional flow using colored dyes for flow visualization.
Since then, numerous researchers have contributed
significantly in various areas of fluid flow and heat transfer in
duct flows. Fluid flow and heat transfer in ducts have
ubiquitous application in wide range of engineering problems
like the industrial pipelines, heat exchangers, etc. While most
of the flow involving heat transfer inside ducts can be
approximated to forced convection, there also exist applications
wherein buoyancy effects are found to appreciably affect the
flow field and temperature distribution in the duct, to large
extent. Such flows are called mixed convection flows and has
also attracted large bunch of heat transfer researchers. While

Copyright 2009 by ASME

conventional textbook analyses assume the flow to be hydrodynamically and thermally developed, most practical problems
stay away from it and in some cases the length of the duct itself
is found to be insufficient for a developed flow to begin. Quite
quanta of effort have gone from various scientists and
academicians on the fluid flow and heat transfer in the entrance
region. A few of recent works have been stated here for the
sake of completeness. Shou-Shing et al. [7] have discussed the
problem of developing turbulent mixed convection in a
horizontal circular tube with strip-type inserts. Tzeng [8] in his
analysis on mixed convection had presented a simple linear
algebraic model for accurate prediction of friction factor and
heat transfer coefficient. Grassi and Testi [9] have presented
correlations for heat transfer for turbulent mixed convection in
the entrance region of a uniformly heated horizontal tube.
While the common applications and most of research work
mentioned in the above paragraph relate to traditional
applications, mixed convection flows are also found to occur in
cutting edge technology areas like high-speed flow test
facilities like scramjet engine test facilities, hypersonic wind
tunnels etc. Flow in many of the components in such systems
are unsteady, turbulent, developing flows with buoyancy effects
tending to be dominant, and thus pose a formidable task to be
modeled. Obtaining quick and reliable numbers is very
important not only for the initial design, but also for cost and
time estimation for the completion of the task.
The problem under consideration is flow of hot air through
a circular duct for duration of about 30 s. The inlet temperature
and mass flow rates vary from 400 K to 1000 K and 300 kg/s to
0.5 kg/s respectively. Such are typical values of high-speed test
facilities like the ones quoted in [10] and [11]. Figure 1 shows
the system taken for analysis, viz. a circular pipe of 0.5 m ID,
made of SA106 of thickness 0.05m. The pipe initially is at
ambient temperature and hot air at the required mass flow rate
and temperature enters the duct. The temperature of air drops
as it flows through the pipeline. For a given material, duct
dimensions, inlet temperature of the air and initial temperature
of the pipeline, the drop in temperature varies with the mass
flow rate of air and temperature difference between the air and
the pipeline. The objective is to estimate the temperature of the
air at the exit of the pipeline for a specified duct material, inlet
air temperature and duration.
In the present article three methods, including an Order of
Magnitude Analysis (OMA) are described with focus on the
OMA to elucidate the efficacy of the technique. The other two
techniques are not discussed in as detail as OMA for obvious
reasons. Nevertheless, certain predominant points as the
governing equations, boundary conditions and alike have been
listed.
NOMENCLATURE
A
area, m2
specific heat capacity, J/(kg-K)
cp

d
h
hentry
hexit
k
L
m

diameter, m
heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K
specific enthalpy of air at inlet, J/kg
specific enthalpy of air at outlet, J/kg
thermal conductivity, W/(m-K)
length of the duct, m
mass of the duct material, kg
mass flow rate, kg/s
O(x)
Order of x
P
pressure, bar
r
radius, m
T
temperature, K
TDF
temperature drop factor, dimensionless
H
enthalpy difference, J
t
time duration, s
initial temperature difference between inlet air and
Tsa
duct, K
Subscripts
a
air
exit
exit conditions
f
film
i
inner
o
outer
ss or w wall

free stream conditions

Greek symbols

ratio of specific heats

dynamic viscosity, Nm/s2

kinematic viscosity, m2/s

density, kg/m3
METHODOLOGY
As mentioned earlier, in the present work, three different
techniques are discussed which are as follows:
1. Order of Magnitude Analysis (OMA)
2. Quasi-one dimensional analysis
3. Two dimensional CFD analysis
While energy balance is the basis for all the methods, the
last technique is based on the conservation of mass, momentum
as well as energy. OMA however, is distinctly different from
the other two methods in the sense that it does not attempt to
solve the governing partial differential equations. The
following section presents in detail the technique of solving the
problems using OMA.
Order of Magnitude Analysis (OMA)
The analysis carried out in this technique is of macroscopic
nature and the method yields only an approximate value of the
parameter desired to be predicted. Nevertheless, the so obtained
value is representative of the order of the exact value of the
parameter.

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By energy balance, assuming that there are no losses from

the outer surface of the duct,

for temperature rise of the shell, as it turns out from the

analysis.

Energy lost by air = Energy gained by the material of the

duct, i.e.,

TABLE 1. VARIATION OF TEMPERATURE DROP FACTOR

m& (hentry hexit ) H ss

[m& c

TDF: Temperature Drop Factor

(1)

mc p (T f Ti )
(Tentry Texit ) air

ss

SNo.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

(2)

Rearrangement of the equation (2) gives

(mc p )ss 1
Tair
Tss
(m& c p )air t

(3)

In the aforementioned equation, for the cause of convenience,

let the terms inside the bracket in the RHS be called as
temperature drop factor (TDF), a dimensionless parameter. For
a given material and dimensions of the duct, fluid medium and
test-run time, the TDF depends on the mass flow rate of air. For
the parameters shown in Fig. 1 and time duration of 30s, the
TDF turns out to be:

TDF =

26.364
m&

TDF=26.364/ma
m& a , kg/s
TDF
290
0.091
4.4
5.99
290
0.091
2.25
11.71
133
0.20
1.25
21.09
63
0.42
0.73
36.12
33
0.80
0.57
46.25
14.2
1.86
0.46
57.31
7.9
3.34
0.4
65.91

(4)
100.00

Stainless steel (SA106)

=8000 kg/m3
cp=460 J/(kg-K)

TDF

10.00

0.05 m
Air
inlet

1.00

0.10

0.5 m
0.01
0.1

10
m a, kg/s

100

1000

2.5 m
FIGURE 1 SCHEMATIC OF THE CIRCULAR DUCT

Table 1 gives the TDF for the range of mass flow rates
considered in this study. The same is represented graphically in
Fig. 2. The input parameters of inlet temperature and mass
flow rates for different cases considered for analysis in the
present study are given in Table 2. It is clear from the table 2
that the range considered encompasses both buoyancy
dominated flows as well as regimes where buoyancy effects
are negligible. The assumption of constant specific heat for the
duct material is based on the fact that the variation is negligible

FIGURE 2 VARIATION OF TEMPERATURE DROP

FACTOR

Let us consider the extreme cases of combinations, viz.,

high mass flow rate and low temperature and low mass flow
rate and high temperature (S. Nos. 1 and 14). Let Ta1 and
Tss1 represent the drop in air temperature along the duct and
raise in duct temperature respectively for Case 1 and
corresponding parameters for Case 2 be denoted as Ta2 and
Tss2. Then we have from Table 1,

Ta1 = 0.0909Tss1

(5)

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Ta 2 = 73.23Tss 2

(6)

Tss1 m& a1ha1Tsa1

(7)

No. 5 in Table 2. This helps us in justification of the chosen

guess value of the temperature difference. The mass flow rate
and inlet temperature for this case are 133 kg/s and 638 K
respectively, i.e. a potential of 638-303K = 305 K O(100). It
is to be decided if this order of temperature difference is to be
assigned to temperature drop in air or temperature raise of the
shell, i.e., the duct material. Assigning O(100) temperature
difference for Ta1 would impose O(1000) for Tss1 as per
Table 1, which is unrealistic. Hence
Tss1 O(100)
(10)

Tss 2 m& a 2 ha 2 Tsa 2

(8)

Substituting equation (10) in (9) gives

For a given duct and time duration of flow, assuming that the cp
of the material of the duct does not vary significantly over the
temperature considered here, the temperature rise of the
material of the duct depends on both the (a) enthalpy of
incoming air and (b) temperature difference between the air and
the duct
Stated otherwise for the two different cases under consideration

Tss 2 O(1)

Tss1 m& a1ha1Tsa1

=
Tss 2 m& a 2 ha 2 Tsa 2

(9)

The table 2 gives a list of the range of parameters. The fifth

column T, represents the difference in temperature between
the incoming air and the initial temperature of the duct. The
product of this difference with enthalpy of incoming air is
given in the last column.
TABLE 2 RANGE OF PARAMETERS

S.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

& a ha Tsa is maximum and this corresponds to S

the product m

m& a ,
T, K
423
845
524
710
638
604
762
574
900
701
1030
842
1183
998

kg/s
290
4.4
290
2.25
133
1.25
63
0.73
33
0.57
14.2
0.46
7.9
0.4

T, K
120
542
221
407
335
301
459
271
597
398
727
539
880
695

m& a ha Tsa ,
W-K
4.197E+09
1.299E+09
1.417E+10
3.753E+08
1.502E+10
1.141E+08
1.335E+10
5.404E+07
1.182E+10
9.088E+07
7.543E+09
1.344E+08
6.148E+09
1.942E+08

Now, if the approximate value of any one of the

temperature differences, viz. Ta1, Ta2, Tss1 or Tss2 is
known, it is possible to predict the value of the others by
employing equations (3) and (9). The choice of the temperature
difference and its guess value assumes importance as it
considerably influences the other values down the line. In
regards to the problem under consideration, the case in which

(11)

Likewise on substituting equations (10) and (11) in equations

(5) and (6) respectively, we obtain,
Ta1 O(1)
(12)

Ta 2 O(100)

(13)

The above results are as shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 TYPICAL RESULTS FOR THE ORDER OF
MAGNITUDE ANALYSIS

Temperature
Difference
Tss1
Tss2
Ta1
Ta2

Order, K
100
1
1
100

The predicted raise in shell temperature and the drop in air

temperature for all the operating points are presented in the
subsequent sections. An advantage of this method is the
simplicity, and for the effort invested yields reasonably
accurate results. In other words, the technique is quite efficient.
Although approximate, this method gives not only an idea of
the values to be predicted, but also bounds by which the values
can vary. The values so predicted can be made use of as initial
guess values during the course of a numerical simulation. This
concludes the method of Order of Magnitude Analysis. It is
reiterated that this technique is not a simple and direct
application of the energy balance wherein one unknown
temperature is computed based on known parameters. The
potential of the method lies in computing of multiple unknown
temperatures using a judicious guess temperature or
temperature difference.
Quasi-One Dimensional (1D) Analysis
A straightforward transient energy balance for fluid and
shell over an infinitesimal control volume yields the following
governing equations for the estimation of temperature

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distributions of air (axial variation) and wall (radial variation).

The first of the two equations (eq. (14)) quantifies the heat loss
by the air by convection to the inner wall of the shell.

low mass flow rates, effect of buoyancy has also been taken
into consideration for the CFD analysis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

m& c p

Ta
= hAi (Ta Tw )
x

(14)

where Ai is the surface area of the inner wall per unit length.
The second equation represents the phenomena of the heat
gained by the shell and the conduction loss through it which is
finally dissipated to ambient by convection and is represented
as follows (in cylindrical coordinates).

Tw 1 Tw 1 Tw
+
=
r 2
r r
t
2

(15)

The equations (14) and (15) are to be solved simultaneously in

accordance with the following initial and boundary conditions.
Initial conditions
At t=0, Tw=Tamb for all x

(16)

Boundary conditions
At x=0, Ta=Tinlet for all t
At r=ri (inner wall): h(Ta

At r=ro (outer wall): k

(17)

Tw ) = k

T
r

T
r

(18)
ri

= h(Tw T )

(19)

ro

The equations (14) and (15) are to be solved numerically with

the initial and boundary conditions (16-19) to obtain the
temperature distributions of the fluid and shell respectively. A
computer code has been developed using explicit scheme.

The results of predictions of the temperature of the fluid at

the exit of a circular duct after 30 seconds duration for various
inlet temperatures and mass flow rates, by three different
techniques presented above are discussed here. In the order of
magnitude analysis, the case which has the maximum of the
enthalpy-temperature difference product has been chosen with
reference temperature difference of the order of 100 K for
reasons quoted in quasi-one dimensional analysis section.
The drop in temperature of the air across the length of the
duct has been estimated by all the three techniques for various
cases of inlet temperature and mass flow rate of the air at the
inlet. Graphical representation of the air temperature at exit for
select few cases which includes combinations of low
temperature high mass flow rate and vice-versa are shown in
Figs. 3A-H. The ultimate parameter of interest is the exit
temperature of air at the end of 30 seconds and hence is
tabulated along with the inlet conditions as presented below in
Table 4. The Texit given in Table 4 represents area weighted
average temperature for 2D CFD analysis, while for Quasi 1D
analysis, there is no consideration given to variation of
temperature at exit. The deviations of the exit temperatures
estimated by OMA with other two techniques are obtained
keeping the inlet temperature of the air as reference. The
maximum deviation in the results of the order of magnitude
analysis from the results of quasi-one dimensional analysis and
the two dimensional CFD analysis are 11 and 6 percents
respectively. Considering the simplicity of the order of
magnitude analysis over the other two methods of analysis the
magnitude of the errors are not very significant. The order of
magnitude analysis thus provides a preliminary conservative
estimate of the parameters of vital importance for any design
exercise.

Transient Two-dimensional CFD analysis

This section presents the details of the computational fluid
dynamic analysis performed on the system under consideration.
This type of problem is usually treated in literature as twodimensional unsteady non-isothermal flow between two
parallel plates and the same has been adopted here. The plates
are separated by a distance of 0.5m (inner diameter of the
circular duct). The modeling and meshing of the geometry was
carried out using Gambit 2.2.30. The number of grids has been
fixed after grid independence study. Initial and boundary
conditions are similar to those used in the Quasi-1d analysis
described in the previous section. The governing equations are
solved using commercial code FLUENT 6.2 with two
parameter k-epsilon turbulence model. As some of the flow
ranges considered here have high temperature differences with

FIGURE 3A - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 1)

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FIGURE 3B - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 2)

FIGURE 3E - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 9)

FIGURE 3C - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 5)

FIGURE 3F - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 10)

FIGURE 3D - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 6)

FIGURE 3G - AIR TEMPERATURE PROFILE AT EXIT (CASE 13)

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From Table 4, it can also be seen that the results of OMA

has deviation of less than 10% in comparison with other two
methods, for more than 95% of the cases. The order of
magnitude analysis, in addition to the estimation of fluid
temperature, is also able to provide the shell temperature. Table
5 shows the rise in shell temperature for different conditions
considered. As the emphasis of the present method is more on
fluid temperature rather than on shell temperature, the shell
temperatures obtained by other two methods are not shown
here.
TABLE 4 COMPARISONS OF THE RESULTS OF OMA WITH
QUASI-ONE DIMENSIONAL AND CFD ANALYSIS

S.
No.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Texit, K

% Deviation

OMA

Quasi
1D

CFD

420.5
514.9
618.4
725.0
837.2
936.9
1046.5
793.2
681.1
588.4
561.4
673.3
791.0
912.9

422.9
523.4
637.7
760.7
896.4
1020.2
1162.7
828.1
691.8
586.3
553.5
663.3
779.2
901.8

422
538.1
634.3
754.9
887.8
974.5
1050
823.8
691.4
588
557
671
782
885

OMA
vs
Quasi
1D
0.58
1.64
3.12
4.93
7.08
8.9
11.1
4.39
1.56
0.35
1.41
1.49
1.48
1.21

OMA
vs
CFD
0.37
4.49
2.57
4.12
6.04
4.01
0.33
3.86
1.49
0.07
0.79
0.35
1.13
3.05

TABLE 5 TEMPERATURE RAISE OF SHELL FOR

VARIOUS MACH NUMBERS FOR REFERENCE T = 100 K

T, K
423
524
638
762
900
1030
1183

m& a ,
kg/s
290
290
133
63
33
14.2
7.9

Order

T, K

10
100
100
100
100
100
100

845
710
604
574
701
842
998

m& a ,
kg/s
4.4
2.25
1.25
0.73
0.57
0.46
0.4

Order
10
1
1
1
1
1
1

CONCLUSIONS
The foregoing sections have presented in sagacious detail,
three different techniques of analysis as applied to the problem

of flow of high temperature air through a circular duct for

various inlet conditions, with prime focus on the Order of
Magnitude Analysis. The results of the analysis indicate
respectable comparison of the predictions from the OMA with
the other two techniques, viz., the Quasi-one dimensional
analysis and 2D-CFD analysis. It is also to be noted that the
OMA is not a straight through estimation of unknown
parameters by substitution of known, while it is the deduction
of the required parameters by judicious initial guess. The
following are the major conclusions that can be drawn from the
study:
a. OMA helps in understanding the physics of the flow
in a much simpler way.
b. The temperature predictions by Order of Magnitude
analysis are comparable to those obtained from the
quasi-one dimensional analysis and CFD analysis.
c. Although seemingly simple, the OMA provides results
accurate in relation to the computational effort. In fact
explicitly stated, the OMA requires only a simple
calculator to estimate the temperatures.
d. OMA can be very handy to generate approximate
estimates of requisite parameters for design of
equipments for situations, where correlations do not
exist or CFD simulations cannot be carried out.
e. OMA can also find its application in the rating of
existing equipment when it is required to operate in
off-design conditions.
It should be noted that the method described has worked
well for the present case and is not generalized. Although the
method of Order of Magnitude Analysis is about a century old
technique, the proposed estimation method is first of its kind
and hence applied to a less severe system to retain its simplicity
without much loss of generality. An obvious extension of the
present work is application of the technique to a wide variety of
problems including but not limited to cases of variation of
thermo-physical properties, non-circular geometries, etc.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors express their sincere gratitude towards their
respective organization for providing constant support and
encouragement to carry-out the present work.
REFERENCES
[1] Schlitching, H., Boundary Layer Theory, 5th edition,
Springer-Verlag, 2000.
[2] Sanjoy Mahajan, "Order of Magnitude Physics - A
Textbook with Applications to the Retinal Rod and to the
Density of Prime Numbers", PhD thesis, California
Institute of Technology, 1998.
[3] Patricio Fernando Mendez, "Order of Magnitude Scaling
of Complex Engineering Problems, and its Application to
High Productivity Arc Welding", PhD thesis,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June 1999.

Copyright 2009 by ASME

[4] Yogen Utturkar, Ryan Holman, Rajat Mittal, Bruce

Carroll, Mark Sheplak, and Louis Cattafesta, "A Jet
Formation Criterion for Synthetic Jet Actuators", AIAA
2003-0636.
[5] Patricio F. Mendez and Fernando Ordonez, Scaling Laws
from Statistical Data and Dimensional Analysis, Journal
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[6] O. Reynolds, An Experimental Investigation of the
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circular tube with strip-type inserts", International Journal
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[8] S. C. Tzeng, "Accurate Prediction of Friction Factor and
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[9] Walter Grassi and Daniele Testi, "Heat Transfer
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entrance region of a Uniformly Heated Horizontal Tube",
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Transatmospheric and Space Transportation, June 2007,
Hyderabad, India.

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