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What is Prandtl Number –

Definition
2019-05-22 by Nick Connor

See our Periodic Table of

The Prandtl number is a dimensionless number, Elements
named after its inventor, a German engineer
Ludwig Prandtl. The Prandtl number is defined as
the ratio of momentum diffusivity to thermal
diffusivity. Thermal Engineering

Prandtl Number
The Prandtl number is a dimensionless number, named Related Articles
after its inventor, a German engineer Ludwig Prandtl, who
also identified the boundary layer. The Prandtl number is
About
defined as the ratio of momentum diffusivity to thermal
diffusivity. The momentum diffusivity, or as it is normally Cookies Statement
called, kinematic viscosity, tells us the material’s resistance Copyright Notice
to shear-flows (different layers of the flow travel with
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different velocities due to e.g. different speeds of adjacent
walls) in relation to density. That is, the Prandtl number is Privacy Policy
given as: Test – Table
Thermal Engineering

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where:

ν is momentum diffusivity (kinematic viscosity) [m2/s]

α is thermal diffusivity [m2/s]

μ is dynamic viscosity [N.s/m2]

k is thermal conductivity [W/m.K]

cp is specific heat [J/kg.K]

ρ is density [kg/m3]

Small Prandtl Number - materials

values of the Prandtl number, Pr << 1, means the thermal
diffusivity dominates. Whereas with large values, Pr >> 1,
the momentum diffusivity dominates the behavior. For
example, the typical value for liquid mercury, which is about
0.025, indicates that the heat conduction is more
significant compared to convection, so thermal diffusivity
is dominant. When Pr is small, it means that the heat
diffuses quickly compared to the velocity.

In comparison to Reynolds number, the Prandtl number is

not dependent on geometry of an object involved in the
problem, but is dependent solely on the fluid and the fluid
state. As such, the Prandtl number is often found in
property tables alongside other properties such as viscosity
and thermal conductivity.

 
Thermal Boundary Layer

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Air at room temperature has a Prandtl number of 0.71 and

for water at 18°C it is around 7.56, which means that the
thermal diffusivity is more dominant for air than for water.
For a Prandtl number of unity, the momentum diffusivity
equals the thermal diffusivity and the mechanism and rate
of heat transfer are similar to those for momentum transfer.
For many fluids, Pr lies in the range from 1 to 10. For gases,
Pr is generally about 0.7.

Prandtl Number of Liquid Metals

For liquid metals the Prandtl number is very small,
generally in the range from 0.01 to 0.001. This means that
the thermal diffusivity, which is related to the rate of heat
transfer by conduction, unambiguously dominates. This
very high thermal diffusivity results from very high thermal
conductivity of metals, which is about 100 times higher
than that of water. The Prandtl number for sodium at a
typical operating temperature in the Sodium-cooled fast
reactors is about 0.004.

The Prandtl number enters many calculations of heat

transfer in liquid metal reactors. Two of promising designs
of Generation IV reactors use a liquid metal as the reactor
coolant. The development of Generation IV reactors
represents a challenge from an engineering point of view.

Sodium-cooled fast reactor

Lead-cooled fast reactor

One of the main challenges in numerical simulation is the

reliable modeling of heat transfer in liquid-metal cooled
reactors by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Heat
transfer applications with low-Prandtl number fluids are
often in the transition range between conduction and
convection dominated regimes.

Laminar Prandtl Number – Turbulent

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laminar part of Prandtl number and a turbulent part of

Prandtl number. The equation Pr = ν/α , shows us actually
only the laminar part which is only valid for laminar flows.
The following equation shows us the effective Prandtl
number:

Preff = ν/α + νt/αt

where νt is kinematic turbulent viscosity and αt is turbulent
thermal diffusivity. The turbulent Prandtl number (Prt =
νt/αt) is a non-dimensional term defined as the ratio
between the momentum eddy diffusivity and the heat
transfer eddy diffusivity. It simply describes mixing because
of swirling/rotation of fluids. The simplest model for Prt is
the Reynolds analogy, which yields a turbulent Prandtl
number of 1.

In the special case where the Prandtl number and

turbulent Prandtl number both equal unity (as in the
Reynolds analogy), the velocity profile and temperature
profiles are identical. This greatly simplifies the solution of
the heat transfer problem. From experimental data, the
turbulent Prandtl number is around 0.7 for different free
shear layers, and for near-wall flows it is larger (Prt = 0.9)
and occasionally beyond 1 since it has a tendency to grow
larger when nearing the walls.

 
References:

Heat Transfer:
1. Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, 7th
Edition. Theodore L. Bergman, Adrienne S.
Lavine, Frank P. Incropera. John Wiley & Sons,
Incorporated, 2011. ISBN: 9781118137253.
2. Heat and Mass Transfer. Yunus A. Cengel.
McGraw-Hill Education, 2011. ISBN:
9780071077866.

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Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. DOE Fundamentals

Handbook, Volume 2 of 3. May 2016.

Nuclear and Reactor Physics:

1. J. R. Lamarsh, Introduction to Nuclear Reactor

Theory, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA
(1983).
2. J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to
Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001,
ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.
3. W. M. Stacey, Nuclear Reactor Physics, John
Wiley & Sons, 2001, ISBN: 0- 471-39127-1.
4. Glasstone, Sesonske. Nuclear Reactor
Engineering: Reactor Systems
Engineering, Springer; 4th edition, 1994,
ISBN: 978-0412985317
5. W.S.C. Williams. Nuclear and Particle
Physics. Clarendon Press; 1 edition, 1991,
ISBN: 978-0198520467
6. G.R.Keepin. Physics of Nuclear Kinetics. Addison-
Wesley Pub. Co; 1st edition, 1965
7. Robert Reed Burn, Introduction to Nuclear
Reactor Operation, 1988.
8. U.S. Department of Energy, Nuclear Physics and
Reactor Theory. DOE Fundamentals
Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.
9. Paul Reuss, Neutron Physics. EDP Sciences,
2008. ISBN: 978-2759800414.

Advanced Reactor Physics:

1. K. O. Ott, W. A. Bezella, Introductory Nuclear

Reactor Statics, American Nuclear Society,
Revised edition (1989), 1989, ISBN:
0-894-48033-2.
2. K. O. Ott, R. J. Neuhold, Introductory Nuclear
Reactor Dynamics, American Nuclear Society,
1985, ISBN: 0-894-48029-4.
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4. E. E. Lewis, W. F. Miller, Computational Methods

of Neutron Transport, American Nuclear Society,
1993, ISBN: 0-894-48452-4.

See also:
Introduction to
Heat Transfer

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