HEAT TRANSFER TO FLUIDS WITHOUT

PHASE CHANGE
 Introduction

• Heat transfer without phase change is required mostly in heat recovery

operations, such as recovery of heat from the hot effluent to preheat the
incoming cooler feed.

• A metal wall is used to separate the two streams.

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 2

 Boundary Layers

• Regimes of heat transfer:

– Boundary layer separation does not occur if the direction of fluid flow is parallel to the heating
surface.
– Boundary layer separation occurs if the direction of the fluid flow is perpendicular to the
heating surface.

• At ordinary velocities the heat generated from fluid friction is negligible in

comparison with the heat transferred between the fluids.

• Because the situations of flow at the entrance to a tube differs from those well
downstream from the entrance, the velocity field and associated temperature
field may depend on the distance from the tube entrance

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 3

 Boundary Layers (Contd…)

• Since the temperature varies from point to point in a flowing stream undergoing
heat transfer, a problem appears in the choice of temperature at which the
properties should be evaluated.
• For small temperature differences between fluid and wall and for fluids with weak
dependence of viscosity on temperature, there is not much change in
temperature.
• But for highly viscous fluids such as heavy petroleum oils or where the
temperature difference between the tube wall and the fluid is large, the variations
in fluid properties within the stream become large, & difficulty of calculating the
heat-transfer rate is increased.

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 4

Thermal Boundary Layer (Contd…)

a) Entire plate heated

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 5
 Thermal Boundary Layer

• Consider a flat plate immersed in a stream of fluid that is in steady flow parallel to
the plate.

• Let velocity and temperature of the approaching stream be u0 and 𝑇∞ .

• Temperature of the plate is 𝑇𝑤 (𝑇𝑤 > 𝑇∞ ).

• A boundary layer develops where the velocity varies from 𝑢 = 0 to 𝑢 = 𝑢0.This

layer is called as hydrodynamic boundary layer.

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 6

 Thermal Boundary Layer (Contd…)

• The penetration of heat by transfer from the plate to the fluid changes the
temperature of the fluid near the surface of the plate, and a temperature gradient
is generated.

• The temperature gradient also is confined to a layer next to the wall, and within
the layer the temperature varies from 𝑇𝑤 at the wall to 𝑇∞ at its outside boundary.

• This layer is called as thermal boundary layer.

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 7

 Prandtl Number

• Prandtl number is defined as the ratio of momentum diffusivity (𝑣 𝑜𝑟 µ/𝜌) to the

thermal diffusivity (𝛼 or 𝑘/𝜌𝐶𝑝 ).

𝑣 𝐶𝑝 𝜇
𝑃𝑟 = =
𝛼 𝑘
• When 𝑃𝑟 > 1 then thermal boundary layer is thinner than hydrodynamic
boundary layer. This is because of low rate of heat conduction.
• Consider a moving plate through a very viscous liquid such as glycerol. This has a
thick boundary layer.

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 8

 Prandtl Number (Contd…)

• For gases the 𝑃𝑟 = 1 (0.69 for air, 1.06 for steam). The boundary layer thickness
is almost same because the viscosity and thermal conductivity both increase with
temperature at the same rate.

• Liquid metals have a very low prandtl number (0.01 to 0.04). This is because of
high thermal conductivity. The temperature gradients extend beyond the
hydrodynamic boundary layer. Solving these require special correlations.

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 9

Heat Transfer by Forced Convection in Laminar Flow over Flat
Plate
• Nusselt number at a distance 𝑥 from the leading edge is denoted by:

• The above equation gives the local nusselt number.

• The Nusselt number over the entire length until the end of the plate is given by:

• The above equations are valid only for Pr ≥ 1.0 (Thermal boundary layer is not thicker
than hydrodynamic boundary layer).

Heat Transfer to Fluids without Phase Change 10