Convection

Convection is the transfer of heat due to the bulk movement of fluids. As such convection only
applies to heat transfer within a fluid or between a solid and fluid but not the heat transfer
within a solid. This heat transfer is achieved by the movement of molecules within the fluid.
The term convection can refer to either mass transfer and/or heat transfer. Typically, when
referred to as ‘convection’, heat transfer is meant.
Convection is the sum of advection and diffusion:
Advection is the heat transported by the large-scale movement of currents in the fluid; and
Diffusion is the random Brownian motion of individual particles in the fluid.
Examples of convection include the effect of hot air rising and falling (convection currents) or
the large-scale convection currents of the atmosphere and oceans.
Convective heat transfer occurs when a gas or liquid flows past a solid surface
whose temperature is different from that of the fluid.
Natural convection: The mechanism of energy transfer by natural
convection involves the motion of a fluid past a solid boundary, which is
the result of the density differences resulting from the energy exchange.
Because of this, it is quite natural that the heat-transfer coefficients and
their correlating equations will vary with the geometry of a given system.
The rate of heat loss of a body is directly proportional to the
difference in the temperatures between the body and its
environment.
According to Newton’s law of cooling, the rate of loss of heat
from a body is directly proportional to the difference in
the temperature of the body and its surroundings.
Newton’s law of cooling states that the rate of heat exchange
between an object and its surroundings is proportional to the
difference in temperature between the object and the
surroundings.
Newton’s law of cooling applies to convective heat transfer; it does not
apply to thermal radiation.
The rate equation for convective heat transfer was first expressed
by Newton in 1701, and is referred to as the Newton rate equation
or Newton’s ‘‘law’’ of cooling. This equation is

where q is the rate of convective heat transfer, in W or Btu/h; A

is the area normal to direction of heat flow, in m2 or ft2; DT is
the temperature difference between surface and fluid, in K or 8F;
and h is the convective heat transfer coefficient, in W/m2 _K or
Btu/h ft2 _F. Equation (15-11) is not a law but a definition of the
coefficient h. A substantial portion of our work in the chapters to
follow will involve the determination of this coefficient. It is, in
general, a function of system geometry, fluid and flow properties,
and the magnitude of DT.
As flow properties are so important in the evaluation of the
convective heat transfer coefficient, we may expect many of the
concepts and methods of analysis introduced in the preceding
chapters to be of continuing importance in convective heat
transfer analysis; this is indeed the case.
From our previous experience we should also recall that even
when a fluid is flowing in a turbulent manner past a surface,
there is still a layer, sometimes extremely thin, close to the
surface where flow is laminar; also, the fluid particles next to
the solid boundary are at rest. As this is always true, the
mechanism of heat transfer between a solid surface and a fluid
must involve conduction through the fluid layers close to the
surface. This ‘‘film’’ of fluid often presents the controlling
resistance to convective heat transfer, and the coefficient h is
often referred to as the film coefficient.
Two types of heat transfer that differ somewhat from free or
forced convection but are still treated quantitatively by equation
(15-11) are the phenomena of boiling and condensation. The film
coefficients associated with these two kinds of transfer are quite
high.
heat transfer coefficient or film coefficient, or film effectiveness,
is the proportionality constant between the heat flux and the
thermodynamic driving force for the flow of heat (i.e., the temperature
difference, ΔT ). It is used in calculating the heat transfer, typically
by convection or phase transition between a fluid and a solid. The heat
transfer coefficient has SI units in watts per square
meter kelvin (W/m ·K).
2

The overall heat transfer rate for combined modes is usually expressed in
terms of an overall conductance or heat transfer coefficient, U. In that
case, the heat transfer rate is:
There are two reasons for the fact that the heat transfer coefficient
decreases as the boundary layer thickness increases, in the developing
region of flow.
1. A boundary layer, by definition, is that region inside the flow
where the fluid is slower than in the mainstream, due to the viscosity
introduced by the wall. Since the flow is slower, so its ability to
transfer heat through advection (convection) will be less and so the
heat transfer coefficient will also be less.
2. In the boundary layer, the temperature varies with Tw (temperature
at wall) to T0 (temperature in free-stream). This temperature
variation is same at all points in the boundary layer, but the
thickness of the boundary layer will keep increasing. This means the
quantity dT/dx will keep decreasing (dx keeps increasing, while dT
remains constant). From Fourier’s law of heat conduction, we
understand that heat transfer decreases because of small dT/dx.
Consequently the Heat transfer coefficient will decrease.
A simple of visualizing this is that boundary layer can be compared to a
layer of insulation. Thicker is the boundary layer, lower is the heat transfer
rate. In fact, many of the methods to augment heat transfer rate in a pipe
are able to do so because they disturb the formation of boundary layers.
 Heat transfer – pipe
Forced convection: Reynolds number is given, Nusselt number is to be calculated.

Nu  3 Re Pr D / L
Natural convection
Velocity and Reynolds number is not known in advance. Flow is induced
only by buoyancy. Instead of Reynolds it is necessary to use the Rayleigh
number.
A temperature–entropy diagram, or T–s diagram, is
a thermodynamic diagram used in thermodynamics to visualize changes
to temperature and specific entropy during a thermodynamic
process or cycle as the graph of a curve. It is a useful and common tool,
particularly because it helps to visualize the heat transfer during a process.
For reversible (ideal) processes, the area under the T–s curve of a process
is the heat transferred to the system during that process.
An isentropic process is depicted as a vertical line on a T–s diagram,
whereas an isothermal process is a horizontal line.
Melting, freezing, baking are thermal processes characterised by moving
interface between two phases – liquid and solid.
Description of the interface motion is so called Stefan problem

In mathematics and its applications, particularly to phase transitions in

matter, a Stefan problem is a particular kind of boundary value
problem for a system of partial differential equations (PDE), in which the
boundary between the phases can move with time. The classical Stefan
problem aims to describe the evolution of the boundary between two
phases of a material undergoing a phase change, for example the melting
of a solid, such as ice to water. This is accomplished by solving heat
equations in both regions, subject to given boundary and initial
conditions. At the interface between the phases (in the classical problem)
the temperature is set to the phase change temperature. To close the
mathematical system a further equation, the Stefan condition, is
required. This is an energy balance which defines the position of the
moving interface. Note that this evolving boundary is an unknown (hyper-
)surface; hence, Stefan problems are examples of free boundary problems.
Rohsenow correlation includes surface effects. In single phase Nu = f(Re,
Pr)

The process of heat transfer to a static liquid in a vessel with a heated

surface on which steam bubbles are formed, is called pool boiling
With increasing excess temperature the formation of bubbles starts (B).
This is the beginning of nucleate boiling. Bubbles are formed on the
heating surface in small pits, called nucleation sites. With increasing
excess temperature the intensity of bubble formation and the number of
active nucleation sites increase. The bubble generation acts as a stirring of
the liquid and increases the convective heat transfer in the liquid. The
bubbles ascend to the surface of the liquid.
Nucleate boiling is a type of boiling that takes place when the surface
temperature is hotter than the saturated fluid temperature by a certain
amount but where the heat flux is below the critical heat flux. For water,
as shown in the graph below, nucleate boiling occurs when the surface
temperature is higher than the saturation temperature (TS) by between 10
and 30 °C (18 and 54 °F). The critical heat flux is the peak on the curve
between nucleate boiling and transition boiling. The heat transfer from
surface to liquid is greater than that in film boiling.
Nucleate boiling is common in electric kettles and is responsible for the
noise that occurs before boiling occurs. It also occurs in water boilers
where water is rapidly heated.
Nukiyama noticed that the formation of bubbles occurs when the
difference between the hot surface T s and the saturated water T sat is
nearly five degrees ( ∆ T e = T s - T sat ≈ 5)
Boiling and Condensation
Energy-transfer processes associated with the phenomena of boiling and
condensation may achieve relatively high heat-transfer rates, whereas the
accompanying temperature differences may be quite small. These
phenomena, associated with the change in phase between a liquid and a
vapor, are more involved and thus more difficult to describe than the
convective heat-transfer processes discussed in the preceding chapters.
This is due to the additional considerations of surface tension, latent heat
of vaporization, surface characteristics, and other properties of two-phase
systems that were not involved in the earlier considerations. The processes
of boiling and condensation deal with opposite effects relative to the
change in phase between a liquid and its vapor. These phenomena will be
considered separately in the following sections.
BOILING
Boiling heat transfer is associated with a change in phase from liquid to
vapor. Extremely high heat fluxes may be achieved in conjunction with
boiling phenomena, making the application particularly valuable where a
small amount of space is available to accomplish a relatively large energy
transfer. One such application is the cooling of nuclear reactors. Another
is the cooling of electronic devices where space is very critical. The advent
of these applications has spurred the interest in boiling, and concentrated
research in this area in recent years has shed much light on the mechanism
and behavior of the boiling phenomenon there are two basic types of
boiling: pool boiling and flow boiling. Pool boiling occurs on a heated
surface submerged in a liquid pool that is not agitated. Flow boiling occurs
in a flowing stream, and the boiling surface may itself be a portion of the
flow passage. The flow of liquid and vapor associated with flow boiling is
an important type of two-phase flow.
CONDENSATION
Condensation occurs when a vapor contacts a surface that is at a
temperature below the saturation temperature of the vapor. When the
liquid condensate forms on the surface, it will flow under the influence of
gravity. Normally the liquid wets the surface, spreads out, and forms a
film. Such a process is called film condensation. If the surface is not wetted
by the liquid, then droplets form and run down the surface, coalescing as
they contact other condensate droplets. This process is designated
dropwise condensation. After a condensate film has been developed in
filmwise condensation, additional condensation will occur at the liquid–
vapor interface, and the associated energy transfer must occur by
conduction through the condensate film. Dropwise condensation, on the
contrary, always has some surface present as the condensate drop forms
and runs off. Dropwise condensation is, therefore, associated with the
higher heat-transfer rates of the two types of condensation phenomena.
Dropwise condensation is very difficult to achieve or maintain
commercially; therefore, all equipment is designed on the basis of filmwise
condensation.
 Radiation
Radiation is the transfer of energy due to electromagnetic waves when
thermal energy is converted by the movement of the charges of electrons
and protons in the material. When a body radiates, the energy comes from
the entire depth of the body, not just the surface. Radiation does not
require a temperature gradient. A person standing some distance from the
source will still feel the effects of the heat, e.g., a person near a fire is heated
by the fire, not by the air surrounding them.
Examples include infra-red radiation such as, an incandescent light bulb
emitting visible light, the infrared radiation emitted by a common
household radiator or electric heater, as well as the sun heating the earth.
In conduction and convection, the amount of heat transfer was found to
depend upon the temperature difference; in radiation, the amount of heat
transfer depends upon both the temperature difference between two
bodies and their absolute temperatures. In addition, radiation from a hot
object will be different in quality than radiation from a body at a lower
temperature.
Radiation travels at the speed of light, having both wave properties and
particle-like
The unit of wavelength which we shall use in discussing radiation is the
micron.
Matter is not required for radiation heat transfer
Short-wavelength radiation such as gamma rays and x-rays is associated
with very high energies.
The amount of energy traveling in a given direction is determined from I,
the intensity of radiation
Planck1 introduced the quantum concept in 1900 and with it the idea that
radiation is emitted not in a continuous energy state but in discrete
amounts or quanta
Emissivity: defined as the ratio of radiation emitted by a surface to the
radiation emitted by a blackbody at the same surface temperature.
The intensity of radiation can be defined as the energy associated with
photons emitted from a unit surface area in unit time. Its S.I. unit
is joule/metre2second or (J/m2s).
The intensity, in general, refers to the measurement of energy flux over an
area. Hence, it measures the amount of energy travelling through a certain
region during a certain period of time
The intensity usually is a measure of the energy flux flowing or passing
through an area over a period of time. In the photon picture, a light wave
consists of multiple photons. Each of these photons is considered to be
energy packets carrying a certain amount of energy.
Thermal radiation are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths from 0.1
to about 10 m (these waves are described by Maxwell equations for
electric E and magnetic H field intensity). The radiation can be
alternatively represented by discrete massless particles, photons, having
energy h (proportional to frequency ) and moving in different directions
with the speed of light (3.108 m/s) in vacuum.
It is not possible to find out precise analogy with the heat and momentum
transfer, because photons are massless particles colliding with molecules
(atoms) but not between themselves. Thus it is difficult to define viscosity,
diffusion coefficients etc.

Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation states that the emissive power to

the coefficient of absorption is constant for all the substances at a given
temperature and wavelength
This leads to the observation that if an object absorbs 100 percent of the
radiation incident upon it, it must reradiate 100 percent. As already stated,
this is the definition of a blackbody radiator.
 Kirchhoff’s law states that: For a body made up of any arbitrary material,
the emitting and the absorbing thermal electromagnetic radiation, the
ratio of its emissive power to its coefficient of absorption is equal to a
universal function. That universal function describes the emissive power
of a perfect black body.

The Kirchhoff’s law states:

The emissivity ε of a body at stationary conditions has the same value as
its absorptivity α.
ε =α
Depending on their reflectivity, absorptivity and transmissivity bodies
are assigned
with the following characteristics respectively names:
black: the radiation will be completely absorbed (α = ε = 1)
white: the radiation will be completely reflected (ρ = 1)
gray: the absorptivity for all wavelengths is the same (ε < 1)
colored: certain wavelengths (those of the colors) are preferentially
reflected
reflective: all rays are reflected with the same angle as the inlet angle
soft/diffuse: the radiation is reflected diffuse in all directions.
Absorptivity (α) is a measure of how much of the radiation is absorbed
by the body.
Reflectivity (ρ) is a measure of how much is reflected, and
transmissivity (τ) is a measure of how much passes through the object.
A blackbody is an ideal object that has perfect absorption of all radiation
that falls on it, regardless of direction or wavelength. It has precisely 0
reflectivity and transmissivity at all wavelengths, precisely 1 absorptivity
at all wavelengths, and precisely 1 total emissivity.
Emissivity (ε) is a measure of how much thermal radiation a body emits
to its environment. It is the ratio of the radiation emitted from its surface
to the theoretical emissions of an ideal black body of the same size and
shape. This parameter thus defines radiative heat transfer away from a
given object. Since it is a ratio of identical parameters, it is unitless, and
will range between 0 and 1. For all real objects, emissivity is also a function
of wavelength. Note that when an object is in thermal equilibrium with its
environment (steady state conditions, at the same temperature, no net
heat transfer) the absorptivity is exactly equal to the emissivity (α=ε).
A gray body is the term for a non-existent, ideal body that has the same
value of emissivity at all wavelengths. It is closer to a real object than an
ideal black body, since it may have absorptivity less than 1 and reflectivity
and transmissivity greater than 0.
All real objects will radiate thermal energy, with power densities at various
wavelengths that depend on the temperature of the object and the
emissivity of the surface. The Stefan-Boltzman law describes the total
emissive power (Eb ) of a blackbody, in W/m2 . Eb=σT 4 . Note that it
depends only on the absolute temperature (T) of the body, and is
proportional to the 4th power of the absolute temperature via σ, the
Stefan-Boltzman constant. This constant has a value of 5.670 X 10-8
W/m2 K.
For a surface that is not an ideal black body, the total emissive power is:
Eb = ϵ ∙σT4 , where ϵ is the emissivity.
For non-blackbodies, the emissive power at each wavelength must be
multiplied by the emissivity as a function of wavelength and temperature:
The emissive power at any given wavelength is described by Planck’s Law:
Planck's law describes the spectral density of electromagnetic radiation.
These radiations are emitted by blackbody when they remain in thermal
equilibrium at a given temperature.
This law gives the spectral distribution of radiation from a blackbody.
The Lambert's cosine law says, that the intensity of a diffuse radiation
emitted from an infinite surface element dA has in each direction the same
magnitude. However the emittance decreases proportionally to the
cosinus of the angle to the orthogonal to the surface.
Difference between heat and temperature
Temperature is a measure of the amount of energy possessed by the molecules of a substance.
It manifests itself as a degree of hotness, and can be used to predict the direction of
heat transfer. The usual symbol for temperature is T. The scales for measuring temperature in
SI units are the Celsius and Kelvin temperature scales. Heat, on the other hand, is energy in
transit. Spontaneously, heat flows from a hotter body to a colder one.
The usual symbol for heat is Q. In the SI system, common units for measuring heat are
the Joule and calorie.
What is steady state heat transfer?
The heat transfer process that does not get affected by the time interval is known as steady-
state heat transfer. In this type of heat transfer, the temperature of the object does not change
with respect to time.
What is unsteady state heat transfer?
The heat transfer process that gets affected by the time interval is known as the unsteady state
heat transfer. In this type of heat transfer, the temperature of the object increases or decreases
with respect to time
What is temperature gradient in heat transfer?
For the given direction, the temperature gradient is the rate of change of temperature with
respect to the displacement.
It means that the temperature gradient is the ratio of the temperature difference between two
points to the distance between these two points.
The term temperature gradient gives the direction as well as the rate of temperature change in
a particular direction.

The term temperature gradient is denoted by the symbol of ∇T.

1] SI unit:
In the SI system the unit of temperature is Kelvin and the unit of distance is m.
SI unit of the temperature gradient is K/m
The first law of thermodynamics is basically the law of conservation of
energy. This means that energy can change form. The hot water that you
use for this experiment contains heat, or thermal energy. When you used
a stove, microwave, or hot plate to heat the water, you converted electrical
energy into thermal energy. The total amount of energy in the universe is
constant. The energy can change form, but the total amount remains the
same. Energy is conserved.
The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy, or disorder, of
the universe always increases. For purposes of this experiment, this means
that heat always travels from a hot object to a cold object. If your soup is
too hot and you add some ice to cool the soup, the cooling does not happen
because “coldness” is moving from the ice to the soup. Rather, the heat
from the soup is melting the ice and then escaping into the atmosphere. In
this experiment, the heat from the hot water is being transferred into the
air surrounding the beaker of hot water.
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or
destroyed, but it can be transferred
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the state of entropy of the
entire universe, as an isolated system, will always increase over time. The
second law also states that the changes in the entropy in the universe can
never be negative.
Entropy is one of the most important concepts in physics and in
information theory. Informally, entropy is a measure of the amount of
disorder in a physical, or a biological, system. The higher the entropy of a
system, the less information we have about the system. Hence,
information is a form of negative entropy.