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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613

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Laminar free convective heat transfer from isothermal

vertical slender cylinder
C.O. Popiel *, J. Wojtkowiak, K. Bober
Fluid and Heat Flow Research Group, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, Piotrowo 3a, 60-965 Poznań, Poland

Received 18 October 2006; received in revised form 14 May 2007; accepted 9 July 2007

Abstract

An experimental study of the laminar free convective average heat transfer in air from isothermal vertical slender cylinder having cir-
cular cross-section was performed using a transient technique. These results obtained for Prandtl number Pr = 0.71 in the range of Ray-
leigh number 1.5 · 108 < RaH < 1.1 · 109 and dimensionless height of 0 < H/D < 60 are correlated with the equation
NuH ¼ ARanH
where A = 0.519 + 0.03454(H/D) + 0.0008772(H/D)2 + 8.855 · 106(H/D)3 and n = 0.25–0.00253 (H/D) + 1.152 · 105 (H/D)2 agree
well with the known numerical data which are approximated with the equation NuH/NuHFP = f(GrH, H/D) valid in laminar boundary
layerpffiffiffi
region
ffi (GrH-crit 6 4 · 109) for fluids of Prandtl number within 0.01 < Pr < 100 and for the transverse curvature parameter
32 H
n ¼ Gr0:25 D < 5. Besides the slenderness criterion determining situation when the vertical isothermal cylinder of circular cross-section can-
H
not be treated as a flat plate is presented in the form Gr0:25 D
H H 6 f ðPrÞ.
 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Free convective heat transfer; Vertical circular cylinder; Lumped capacitance method

1. Introduction where x is the distance from the base of cylinder, H the

height of cylinder, D the diameter of cylinder, Grx and
Free convective heat transfer from vertical slender cylin- GrH are the local and average Grashof numbers. The last
der having circular cross-section is relevant to many heat criterion is usually presented in some handbooks (e.g. Incr-
engineering applications. From a numerical solution pre- opera et al. [2, p. 572]).
sented by Cebeci [1] for laminar free convective heat trans- Using table data of numerical solution [1] we may
fer from isothermal vertical circular cylinder it results that obtain the following 3% criterion for the transversal curva-
the transversal curvature effect for fluids having Prandtl ture effect for the average heat transfer from isothermal
number Pr 6 0.71 becomes higher then 5.5% in compari- vertical cylinders valid in the range of Prandtl number from
son with the vertical flat plate when Pr = 0.01–100
D D
Gr0:25
x 6 53  for local heat transfer Gr0:25 6 a þ b=Pr0:5 þ c=Pr2 ð1Þ
x H
H
and
where a = 11.474, b = 48.92, c =  0.006085. In Fig. 1 a
D comparison of the approximated Eq. (1) with the 3% crite-
Gr0:25
H 6 35  for average heat transfer
H rion calculated directly from the table data of Cebeci [1] is
shown. Below the line given by Eq. (1) we have ‘‘long cyl-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +48 61 6652 537; fax: +48 61 6652 439. inder’’ or so called ‘‘slender cylinder’’ and above we have a
E-mail address: popiel@sol.put.poznan.pl (C.O. Popiel). ‘‘flat plate’’. As it was discussed in a review paper [3] the

0894-1777/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2007.07.003
608 C.O. Popiel et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613

Nomenclature

A heat transfer area (m2) Nux local Nusselt number, hx/k

C specific heat (J/(kg K)) NuH average Nusselt number, hH/k
D diameter of cylinder (m) Pr Prandtl number
G gravitational acceleration (m/s2) Rax = GrxPr local Rayleigh number
G tangent of inclination angle of the tangent line
of the ln # value vs. time t at given point, Greek symbols
G ¼ dðln
dt
#Þ
or G ¼ ln #t11 ln
t2
#2
m kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
H heat transfer coefficient (W/(m2K)) # temperature difference, # = T  T1
H, x height of cylinder (m) q density (kg/m3)
k thermal conductivity (W/(mK)) r Stefan–Boltzmann constant, r = 5.67 · 108
m mass of cylinder (kg) (W/(m2K4))
Qlosses heat losses (W) e surface emissivity
t time (s)
T temperature (C) Subscripts
FP flat plate
Similarity numbers T thermal
Bi Biot number, hD/2k rad radiation
Grx local Grashof number, gb(Tw–T1) x3/m2 s surface
GrH average Grashof number, gb(Tw–T1)H3/m2 1 value at infinity

laminar free convective heat transfer takes place below crit-
ical Grashof number of about GrH-crit 6 4 · 109.
The available experimental data concerning free convec-
tive heat transfer from vertical slender cylinders show a
very wide spread and not all of them are credible. The com-
parison of selected empirical and theoretical correlation
equations is shown in the review paper [3]. The main aim
of this paper is to validate experimentally the numerical
solution of Cebeci [1] and to provide reliable and accurate
correlation for the laminar free convective average heat
transfer from the isothermal vertical slender circular
cylinder.
2. Experimental technique
For the measurement of average heat transfer coefficient
the lumped capacitance transient method was used. This
method was successfully used e.g. by Oosthuizen [4] and
recently by Popiel and Wojtkowiak [5]. The energy balance
equation applied to the tested cylinder (Fig. 2) is
mc dT v ¼ hðT s  T 1 ÞA dt þ Qlosses dt ð2Þ
where m, c, A are the mass, specific heat and convective heat
transfer surface of the cylinder, h is the average heat trans-
fer coefficient, Tv, Ts, T1 are the average temperatures of

1000

FLAT PLATE
100
GrH0.25 (D/H)

SLENDER
CYLINDER

10

CEBECI BASED DATA

EQUATION (1)
1
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Pr

Fig. 1. Effect of Prandtl number on the 3% criterion for the isothermal vertical cylinder slenderness.
 C.O. Popiel et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613
insulation
TA
H Q= h (TA - T )A
TV
1
insulation 2 Qlosses
Fig. 2. Energy balance of tested cylinder.
cylinder, its side surface and air. For the aluminium cylin-
der and relatively low heat transfer coefficient (i.e. for the
Biot number Bi 6 0.01) we may assume Tv = Ts = T. When
the heat losses of the tested cylinder to the insulation can be
neglected (Qlosses = 0) and introducing # = T  T1 for
T1 = const we obtain
mc d#
h dt ¼ 
A #
or
mc dðln #Þ
h¼
A dt
and integrating
mc ðln #1  ln #2 Þ mc
h¼ ¼ G
A t2  t1 A deep holes of 1 mm in diameter were drilled where the cop-
The heat transfer coefficient is proportional to the tan-
gent G of the inclination angle of the tangent line of the
ln # value vs. time t at a given point or range (Fig. 3).
For example from the transient PC recording we have
obtained a table of about a few hundreds temperature
readings of the tested cylinder and ambient air vs. time
(e.g. for every 8 to 24 s). Next the table of ln # vs. time t
was approximated with the function G = f(t) using e.g.
the Table Curve 2D Automated Fitting Software (Jandel
Scientific). Then this function was differentiated analyti-
cally and the heat transfer coefficient h was calculated with
the Eq. (4) instead of Eq. (5). Simultaneously in the same
table the Grashof and Rayleigh numbers were calculated
using a spread sheet. Therefore it was possible to obtain
the relationship of the Nusselt number vs. Grashof or Ray-
leigh numbers. This novel technique of the experimental
data reduction of the lumped capacitance method was first
used by Popiel and Wojtkowiak [5].
In Fig. 4 a schematic diagram of the experimental set-up
is shown. The tested cylinder was shrouded with the mos-
609
Temperature T [°C]
T1
T
T2
T
t1 t2
Time t [s]
ln υ
1
ln υ 1
2
ln υ 2
exponential region
ð3Þ
t1 t2
Time t [s]
Fig. 3. Temperature variation of tested cylinder with time.
ð4Þ
quito screen forming a box (0.6 · 0.6 · 0.9 m). The sizes
and masses of four tested cylinders are shown in Table 1.
ð5Þ At the top and bottom of the first cylinder the 38 mm
per-constantan thermocouples of 0.2 mm diameter having
teflon insulation were inserted. This cylinder had one addi-
tional thermocouple inbuilt into cylinder at the half of its
height. The next two cylinders had only two thermocouples
inserted onto 53 mm deep holes of 1.5 mm diameter. The
thermocouple junctions were wetted with the high conduc-
tivity compound paste. The ambient air temperature was
measured with three copper-constantan thermocouples of
0.37 mm diameter. For data reduction the average temper-
ature of tested cylinder and the average temperature of air
were used.
All tested cylinders were made of aluminium alloy
(duraluminium having k = 164 W/(mK), q = 2787 kg/m3,
c = 883 J/(kg K), Eckert and Drake [6]) which were fine
machined, then ground and polished to an enduring mir-
ror-like surface finish to suppress heat radiation. During
the test the upper and bottom of cylinder ends were
insulated with the 20 mm thick (top) and 50 mm thick (bot-
tom) expanded polystyrene plates (having conductivity
k = 0.03 W/(mK) for q = 56 kg/m3 at 40 C).
610 C.O. Popiel et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613

tem controlled by the PC computer was switched on. Dur-

mosquito screen box
ing the test lasting from about 0.5 to 2 h all windows, a
door and ventilation ducts of the laboratory room were
closed and sealed. Before these precaution measures as well
insulating top
as before application of the mosquito shroud we have
observed an unclear spread of the experimental results pre-
sumable, because of uncontrolled external movement of
air. From the rough smoke visualization of the rising
4 boundary layer of hot air on a hot vertical pipe [3] it was
thermocouple
1 noticed as the rising laminar column of hot air could be
very easy shifted from the pipe surface by any external
tested
cylinder
movement of air.
A beginning of the reliable test period commenced after
H about 5 min from the insertion of the cylinder into the
5 2
screen box and its end was determined when the tempera-
ture difference between cylinder and ambient air dropped
below about 10 K. The starting period was needed to calm
down a disturbing movement of air caused by positioning
3 the tested cylinder and to establish a quasi-steady natural
6 convection. Below the lower limit, presumably the weaken-
ing boundary layer on the test cylinder was disturbed by
D intrinsic disturbances of air in our screen box. The starting
period and the lower limit could be easy identified from
insulating plate unjustified shape of the NuH number vs. RaH number plot.
In the reliable test period the cylinder was cooled in ambi-
ent air and we could expect only a negligible low heat inter-
123456
action between the test cylinder and insulation.
All physical properties of air needed for data reduction
were evaluated at the film temperature Tf = (Ts  T1)/2
Thermocouple Monitor PC
computer
Printer using the approximating formulas based on the most reli-
SR 630
able literature data [7]. Similar experiments concerning ver-
Fig. 4. Experimental set-up. tical square cylinders are described by Popiel and
Wojtkowiak [5] and the uncertainty analysis indicates that
Table 1 the overall uncertainty in measurements of the Nusselt
Tested cylinders
number is about 2.64% with 95% confidence.
Diameter Height H/D Mass Number
D (mm) H (mm) m (g) of tests
3. Results and discussion
Cylinder 1 10.2 600 58.82 130.4 6
Cylinder 2 20.35 599.8 29.48 522.6 6
Cylinder 3 38.08 599.9 15.75 1847.05 7 For each of the test cylinders (Table 1) at least six runs
Cylinder 4 79.8 80.25 1.006 1126.50 6 were performed. An example of the comparison of the six
test runs for the cylinder No. 3 with the final correlation
equation is shown in Fig. 5. The results of all tests for all
The convective heat transfer coefficient was determined cylinders were correlated in the form of the equation:
as the difference of the measured total and radiation heat
transfer coefficients NuH ¼ ARanH ð6Þ

hconv ¼ h  hrad where

2
A ¼ 0:519 þ 0:03454ðH =DÞ þ 0:0008772ðH =DÞ
where hrad ¼ reðT 4  T 41 Þ/(T  T1) is the radiation heat
transfer coefficient, r = 5.67 · 108 W/(m2K4) is the Ste- þ 8:855  106 ðH =DÞ3 and
fan–Boltzmann constant, e = 0.043 is surface emissivity n ¼ 0:25  0:00253ðH =DÞ þ 1:152  105 ðH =DÞ2
of polished aluminium (Incropera et al. [2]). In our case
the radiation heat transfer coefficient was below of about The factor A and exponent n were developed using the
4% of the measured total heat transfer coefficient. computer software Table Curve 2D. The above equation
Before each run the tested cylinder was warming up in a is valid in the range of the Rayleigh number
dryer to the temperature of about 135 C. Then the cylin- 108 < RaH < 1.1 · 109 and dimensionless height 0 <
der was positioned vertically on the thick insulation plate H/D < 60. The maximum deviation of the experimental
in the mosquito screen box (Fig. 4) and the recording sys- Nusselt numbers from the results obtained with the
 C.O. Popiel et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613 611

4.8
H/D=15.75
EXPERIMENTS
Equation (6)
4.7

ln NuH 4.6

4.5

4.4

4.3
19.0 19.2 19.4 19.6 19.8 20.0 20.2 20.4 20.6 20.8 21.0
ln RaH

Fig. 5. Average Nusselt number against Rayleigh number for six test runs of the cylinder no 3.

  0:9091
approximating Eq. (6) is from +3.2% to –2.5%. It was esti- 0:25 H
mated that the overall uncertainty of the experimental Eq. NuH =NuH FP ¼ 1 þ 0:300 320:5 ðGrH Þ ð8Þ
D
(6) is 3.5% with 95% confidence.
In Fig. 6 the experimental data and the Eq. (6) are con- or approximated by the equation valid for the Prandtl
fronted with the known correlation equation developed by number from Pr = 0.01–100
Churchill and Chu [8] for isothermal vertical flat plate for
   C
RaH < 109: 0:25 H
NuH =NuH FP ¼ 1 þ B 320:5 ðGrH Þ ð9Þ
0:670 Ra0:25 D
H
NuH FP ¼ 0:68 þ 9=16 4=9
ð7Þ
½1 þ ð0:492=PrÞ  where B = 0.0571322 + 0.20305 Pr0.43 and C = 0.9165 
From Fig. 7 results that our experimental data represented 0.0043 Pr0.5 + 0.01333 ln Pr + 0.0004809/Pr. This equation
by the Eq. (6) agree very well with the numerical calcula- is valid in the laminar boundary layer region, i.e. for the
tion values obtained by Cebeci [1] for the transverse curva- Grashof number GrHcr 6 4 · 109. The lower limit is deter-
pffiffiffiffi
32 H
mined by the Rayleigh number approx. RaH P 104 below
ture parameter n ¼ Gr0:25 D
<5 and represented by the which the boundary layer approximation is not valid [2,
H
simple equation valid for Pr = 0.72 in laminar region: p. 566].

1000
EXPERIMENTS
CYLINDER: Eq. (6)
FLAT PLATE: Eq. (7)

H/D=58,8

H/D=29,5
H/D=15,7
NuH

100
H/D=0, FLAT PLATE

10
8
1010
1,E+08 1,E+09 1,E+10
10
RaH

Fig. 6. Nusselt number for vertical cylinder and flat plate.

612 C.O. Popiel et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613

1000
AL-ARABI & KHAMIS (1982)
EXPERIMENT: Eq. (6)
NUMERICAL: Eq. (8)
LEE et al. (1988)
NUMERICAL: Eq. (9)
FLAT PLATE: Eq. (7)
LE FEVRE & EDE: Eq. (10)
YANG (1985)
Pr=0.71
H/D=60
NuH

100

FLAT PLATE

10
1E+05 1E+06 1E+07 1E+08 1E+09 1E+10
RaH
Fig. 7. Comparison of the experimental Eq. (6) with the Eqs. (8) and (9) based on the numerical calculation of Cebeci [1] and results of Lee et al. [9].

The maximum deviation of the experimental Nusselt gives more accurate results than, example, popular formula
number (for Pr = 0.71) represented by the Eq. (6) from of Le Fevre and Ede [11] based on the approximated solu-
the results obtained with the approximating Eq. (9) based tion of integral equations of the laminar free boundary
on numerical data is from 5.4% at RaH = 1.5 · 108 to layer on a vertical cylinder
below about +1% at RaH = 1.1 · 109. As it is seen in  0:25
Fig. 7 beyond of Rayleigh number Ra > 106 the numerical 4 7RaH Pr 4ð272 þ 315 PrÞ H
NuH ¼ þ ð10Þ
data obtained by Lee et al. [9] are almost the same as those 3 5ð20 þ 21 PrÞ 35ð64 þ 63 PrÞ D
of Cebeci. Instead the experimental data of Al-Arabi and
Khamis [10] for Pr = 0.71 are too high. The quality of For example, for Pr = 0.71 this formula gives lower results
the Eq. (9) is shown in Fig. 8. The maximum departure than Eq. (9) what is shown in Figs. 7 and 9. A general cor-
of the results obtained with the approximating Eq. (9) from relating equation recommended by Yang [12] for laminar
the numerical data of Cebeci is within ±2%. The Eq. (9) and turbulent regions in the form

6
Pr=0.01
5.5 Pr=0.1
Pr=0.72
5 Pr=1.0
Pr=10
4.5 Pr=100
Pr=0.01 - Eq. (9)
Pr=0.1 - Eq. (9)
4
NuH/NuFP

Pr=0.72 - Eq. (9)

Pr=1 - Eq. (9)
3.5
Pr=10 - Eq. (9)
Pr=100 - Eq. (9)
3

2.5

1.5

1
0 1 2 3 4 5
0.5 -0.25
32 GrH (H/D)

Fig. 8. Comparison of the Eq. (9) and numerical data of Cebeci [1].
 C.O. Popiel et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 607–613 613

1000

Pr=0.71
H/D=500

100
H/D=100
NuH

FLAT PLATE: Eq. (7)

CEBECI: Eq. (9)
H/D=10

10

LE FEVRE & EDE: Eq. (10)

H/D=2

1
1E+4 1E+5 1E+6 1E+7 1E+8 1E+9 1E+10
GrH
Fig. 9. Comparison of the Eq. (9) based on Cebeci numerical results and formula of Le Fevre and Ede [11].

8 2
>
<  0:5
H 6 RaH
NuH ¼ 0:60 þ 0:3874h i16=9 5 >
>
: D
1 þ ð0:492=PrÞ9=16
for example for Pr = 0.71, H/D = 60 and for RaH > 106
gives too high results (Fig. 7).
4. Practical significance
Free convective average heat transfer from vertical slen-
der cylinder having circular cross-section is relevant to
many heat engineering application which one may envis-
aged, for example calculating heat losses from vertical
pipes and also calculating free convective heat flux from
cylindrical elements of heating or cooling devices.
5. Concluding remarks
1. The slenderness criterion Gr0:25 D
H H 6 f ðPr) (see Eq. (1)
and Fig. 1) determines situation when vertical isother-
mal cylinder of circular cross-section cannot be treated
as a flat plate.
2. Experiments have been performed to validate the
numerical results for laminar free convective heat trans-
fer from isothermal vertical slender cylinders. The Eq.
(9) approximating numerical table data agree very well
with the experimental results and gives more accurate
results than another known correlations. At present
the correlation Eq. (9) based on the experimentally ver-
ified numerical data of Cebeci is the most reliable and
accurate equation for the laminar free convection heat
transfer from a vertical isothermal cylinder.
3. One has to remember that the slightest movement of
fluid in the vicinity of a vertical cylinder can shift a very
31=6 92 sensitive column of rising fluid from the hot cylinder sur-
>
=
7 face and increase the free convective heat transfer.
;
References
ð11Þ
[1] T. Cebeci, Laminar-free-convective-heat transfer from the outer
surface of a vertical slender circular cylinder, in: Proceedings of the
5th International Heat Transfer Conference, vol. 3. Paper NC 1.4,
Tokyo, 1974, pp. 15–19.
[2] F.P. Incropera, D.P. De Witt, T.L. Bergman, A.S. Lavine, Funda-
mentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, sixth ed., John Wiley and Sons,
2006.
[3] C.O. Popiel, Free convection heat transfer from vertical slender
cylinders (A review), Int. J. Heat Transfer Eng., in press.
[4] P.H. Oosthuizen, Experimental study of free convective heat transfer
from inclined cylinders, J. Heat Transfer, Trans. ASME, Ser. C 98
(1976) 672–674.
[5] C.O. Popiel, J. Wojtkowiak, Experiments on free convective heat
transfer from side walls of a vertical square cylinder in air, Int. J. Exp.
Therm. Fluid Sci. 29 (2004) 1–8.
[6] E.R.G. Eckert, R.M. Drake, Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer,
McGraw Hill Book Company, 1972.
[7] C.O. Popiel, J. Wojtkowiak, Experiments in Heat Transfer, Publ.
House of Poznan University of Technology, Poznań, 2004 (in Polish).
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turbulent free convection from vertical flat plate, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer 18 (1975) 1323–1329.
[9] H.R. Lee, T.S. Chen, B.F. Armaly, Natural convection along slender
vertical cylinder with variable surface temperature, J. Heat Transfer,
Trans. ASME 110 (1988) 103–108.
[10] M. Al-Arabi, M. Khamis, Natural convection heat transfer from
inclined cylinders, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 25 (1982) 3–15.
[11] E.J. Le Fevre, A.J. Ede, Laminar free convection from the outer
surface of a vertical circular cylinder, in: Proceedings of the 9th
International Congress Applied Mechanics, vol. 4. Brussels, 1956, pp.
175–183 (see e.g.: L.C. Burmaister, Convective Heat Transfer, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1983, pp. 533–538 or A. Bejan, Convection
Heat Transfer, third ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004, p. 222).
[12] S.M. Yang, General correlating equations for free convection heat
transfer from a vertical cylinder, in: Proceedings of the International
Symposium on Heat Transfer, Hemisphere Publ. Corp., Peking, 1985,
pp. 153–159.