Erbil Polytechnic University

Erbil Technical Engineering College

Mechanical & Energy Engineering Department

NURAL PREPARED BY :
Rayan Hamadameen Mohammed

CONVECTION Supervised By :
Dr.Ahmad Adham Eng.Esra Ahmad

“Heat Transfer”

Cold air
Cold air

Hot plate
Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................ 2
• acceleration ..................................................................................... 3
• centrifugal force .............................................................................. 3
• Coriolis force .................................................................................. 3
Convection Examples ............................................................................. 6
• Sea breeze ....................................................................................... 6
• Land Breeze .................................................................................... 6
Advantage and disadvantage of natural convection ................................ 9
Example : .............................................................................................. 10
Application ........................................................................................... 12
References: ........................................................................................... 13

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Introduction
Heat transfer is a process that occurs when non-human forces affect the
cooling and heating of liquids and gasses. This process is known as
natural convection.

Convection is heat transfer by mass motion of a fluid such as air or

water when the heated fluid is caused to move away from the source of
heat, carrying energy with it. There are two types of convection: natural
and forced convection.

In natural convection, the movement of atoms

within a fluid causes it to cool down. This
process then produces a cooling current that
moves the warm fluid away from the body.

Natural convection, fluid surrounding a heat

source receives heat and by thermal Thermal
expansion of the fluid plays a crucial role. In
other words, heavier (more dense) components
will fall, while lighter (less dense) components
rise, leading to bulk fluid movement. Natural

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

convection can only occur in a gravitational field or in the presence of

another proper acceleration, such as:
• acceleration
• centrifugal force
• Coriolis force

Natural convection essentially does not operate in the orbit of Earth.

For example, in the orbiting International Space Station, other heat
transfer mechanisms are required to prevent electronic components from
overheating.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Natural or “Buoyant” or “Free” convection is a very important

mechanism that is operative in a variety of environments from cooling
electronic circuit boards in computers to causing large scale circulation
in the atmosphere as well as in lakes and oceans that influences the
weather. It is caused by the action of density gradients in conjunction
with a gravitational field. This is a brief introduction that will help you
understand the qualitative features of a variety of situations you might
encounter.

There are two basic scenarios in the context of natural convection. In

one, a density gradient exists in a fluid in a direction that is parallel to
the gravity vector or opposite to it. Such situations can lead to “stable”
or “unstable” density stratification of the fluid. In a stable stratification,
less dense fluid is at the top and more dense fluid at the bottom. In the
absence of other effects, convection will be absent, and we can treat the
heat transfer problem as one of conduction. In an unstable stratification,
in which less dense fluid is at the bottom, and more dense fluid at the
top, provided the density gradient is sufficiently large, convection will
start spontaneously and significant mixing of the fluid will occur.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

You should note that density gradients can arise not only from
temperature gradients, but also from composition gradients even in an
isothermal system. Here, we restrict our discussion to the case when
temperature gradients are the source of the density gradients. The more
common situation that we encounter in heat transfer is one in which
there is a density gradient perpendicular to the gravity vector. Consider a
burning candle. The air next to the hot candle flame is hot, whereas the
air laterally farther from it is relatively cooler. This will set up a natural
convection flow around the candle, in which the cool surrounding air
approaches the surface of the candle, rises, and flows in a hot plume
above the flame. It is this flow that causes Fluid Hot Cold ∇T Stable
Fluid Hot Cold ∇T Unstable 2 the visible flame to take the shape it does.
In the absence of gravity, a candle flame would be spherical.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Convection Examples
As we have read previously, convection can either be forced or natural.
One of the most common examples of natural convection is the
phenomena of the sea and land breeze:

• Sea breeze: This phenomenon occurs during the day. The sun heats
up both the sea surface and land. As the sea has a greater heating
capacity, it absorbs much of the sun’s energy but gets warmed up
much slower than the land. As a result, the temperature above the
land rises and heats the air in the atmosphere above it. Warm air is
less dense, and hence, it expands, creating a low-pressure area over
the land near the coast. Meanwhile, there is relatively high pressure
over the sea. The difference in air pressure causes the air to flow
from sea to land. The sudden gush of wind felt due to this is known
as the sea breeze.
• Land Breeze: This phenomenon occurs during the night when the
situation reverses. As the sun sets, the land and sea start cooling
down. The land quickly loses heat when compared to water due to
the differences in heat capacity. Consequently, the temperature of
the sea is relatively higher, which creates low air pressure there.
This sets up a flow of cool breeze offshore, known as the land
breeze.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Natural Convection another example- a metal cylinder fitted vertically in a wooden

rectangular duct which is open at the top and the bottom (Fig below). An electric
heater is provided in the vertical cylinder, which heats the surface of the cylinder.
Heat is lost from the cylinder to the surrounding air by natural convection, because
the air in contact with the cylinder gets heated and becomes less dense, causing it
to rise. This in turn creates a continuous flow of air upward in the duct. The
temperature at the various locations on the surface of the vertical cylinder and in
the incoming and outgoing air is monitored with thermocouples. The duct is made
of wood because it is a poor conductor, so not much heat will transfer from the air
to the duct. Thus the duct will enhance air flow without introducing another
convective surface.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Advantage and
disadvantage of natural
convection
Air-cooled type operates at higher head pressure or condensing pressure,
hence reducing the capacity of the compressor and increases the power
intake. In general, a 2 hp water-cooled system will require the same
refrigeration as a 3 hp air-cooled system.

The maintenance costs of water-cooled type is about three to four times

the air-cooled type. Air-cooled type maintenance is usually limited to
regular lubrication of fan and motor bearings. Water-cooled type
requires cleaning from algae and bacteria. Scales on the tubes are
removed by using acid compound. Proper water treatment is also critical
to the operation of the cond.

any additional cost for heat transfer. While it’s disadvantage is, it is
ineffective in static systems for heat transfer.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Example :
Example 2: Heat sink A 12‐cm wide and 18‐cm‐high vertical hot surface in 25°C
air is to be cooled by a heat sink with equally spaced fins of rectangular profile.
The fins are 0.1 cm thick, 18 cm long in the vertical direction, and have a height of
2.4 cm from the base. Determine the optimum fin spacing and the rate of heat
transfer by natural convection from the heat sink if the base temperature is 80°C

The fin thickness t is much smaller than the fin spacing S.

Solution: 𝐿 = 0.18𝑚 , 𝐻 = 0.024 𝑚 , 𝑡 = 1 𝑚𝑚 , 𝑇𝑠 = 80°𝐶
, 𝑊 = 0.12 𝑚 , 𝑇∞ = 25°𝐶 .
properties of air are evaluated at the film temperature:
𝑇𝑓 = (𝑇∞ + 𝑇𝑠) / 2 = 52.5°𝐶 = 325.5 𝐾
At this temperature : 𝑘 = 0.0279 𝑊 /𝑚𝐾 ,𝜈 = 1.82 𝑥 10‐ 5 𝑚2 /𝑠
,𝑃𝑟 = 0.709 ,and assuming ideal gas ,𝛽 = 1 / 𝑇𝑓 = 1/325.5 𝐾 =
0.003072 1/𝐾.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

The characteristic length is 𝐿 = 0.18 𝑚.

𝑔𝛽(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇∞ )𝐿3
𝑅𝑎 = 2
× 𝑃𝑟 = 2.067 × 107
𝑣

The optimum fin spacing is determined

𝐿
𝑆 = 2.714 = 0.0072𝑚 = 7.2𝑚𝑚
𝑅𝑎 1/4

The number of fins and the heat transfer coefficient for the optimum fin

spacing case are

𝑊
𝑛= ≈ 15 fins
𝑆+𝑡

𝐾 𝑊
ℎ = 1.31 = 5.08
𝑆 𝑚𝐾

The rate of natural convection heat transfer becomes:

𝑄̇ = ℎ(2𝑛𝐿𝐻 )(𝑇𝑠 − 𝑇∞ )

𝑄̇ = 5.08(2 × 15 × 0.18 × 0.024)(80 − 25) = 36.2 𝑊

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

Application
Natural convection heat transfer is extensively used in the following
areas of engineering:

1. Cooling of commercial high voltage electrical power transformers.

2. Heating of houses by electrical baseboard heaters.

3. Heat loss from steam pipe lines in power plants and heat gain in
refrigerant pipe lines in air conditioning applications.

4. Cooling of reactor cores in nuclear power plants, though often the

coolant is driven by pumps, resulting in more efficient heat transfer
by forced convection.

5. Cooling of electronic devices (chips, transistors) by finned heat

sinks, though a fan is often present to augment the natural
convection with forced convection.

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Natural Convection Heat Transfer Report

References:
• Mills, A.F., Heat Transfer, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey (1999).
• Bird, R.B., Stewart, W.E., and Lightfoot, E.N., Transport Phenomena,
Wiley, New York 2007).
• Gebhart, B., Jaluria, Y., Mahajan, R.L., and Sammakia, B., Buoyancy-
Induced Flows and Transport, Hemisphere, Cambridge (1988).
• https://byjus.com/physics/heat-transfer-convection/
• Natural Convection - Bing images
• https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=natural+convection+application&qp
vt=natural+convection+application&FORM=VDRE
• https://brainly.in/question/2806612
• https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Natural+Convection&FORM=RES
TAB
• Microsoft Word - Natural Convection (sfu.ca)
• What Is Convection? - Heat Definition, Types of Convection, Examples,
Video and FAQs (byjus.com)
• Heat Transfer by Natural Convection (Theory) : Heat & Thermodynamics
Virtual Lab : Physical Sciences : Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Virtual Lab
• https://www.thermal-engineering.org/what-is-natural-convection-free-
convection-definition/

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