Chapter 3.

2: Internal Forced
Convection
Faculty of Chemical Engineering
UiTM (T), Kampus Bukit Besi

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Objectives
When you finish studying this chapter, you should be able to:

• Have a visual understanding of different flow regions in

internal flow, such as the entry and the fully developed
flow regions, and calculate hydrodynamic and thermal
entry lengths,

• Analyze heating and cooling of a fluid flowing in a tube

under constant surface temperature and constant surface
heat flux conditions, and work with the logarithmic mean
temperature difference,
The Entrance Region
 Consider a fluid entering a circular pipe at a
uniform velocity.
 Because of the no-slip condition, a velocity
gradient develops along the pipe.
 The flow in a pipe is divided into two regions:
– the boundary layer region, and
– irrotational (core) flow region.
• The thickness of this
boundary layer Irrotational Boundary
layer
flow
increases in the flow
direction until it
reaches the pipe
center.
 Hydrodynamic entrance region ─ the region
from the pipe inlet to the point at which the
boundary layer merges at the centerline.
 Hydrodynamically fully developed region ─ the
region beyond the entrance region in which the
velocity profile is fully developed and remains
unchanged.
 The velocity profile in the fully developed region
is
 parabolic
in laminar flow, and
 somewhat flatter or fuller in turbulent flow.
Thermal Entrance Region
 Consider a fluid at a uniform temperature entering a
circular tube whose surface is maintained at a different
temperature.
 Thermal boundary layer along the tube is developing.
 The thickness of this boundary layer increases in the flow
direction until the boundary layer reaches the tube center.
 Thermal entrance region.
 Thermally fully developed region ─ the region beyond the
thermal entrance region in which the dimensionless
temperature profile
expressed as
(Ts-T)/(Ts-Tm)
remains unchanged.
 Hydrodynamically fully developed:

u  r , x 
 0  u  u r (8-7)

x
Thermally fully developed:

  Ts  x   T  r , x  
 0 (8-8)
x  Ts  x   Tm  x  

  Ts  T    T r  r  R
    f  x  (8-9)
r  Ts  Tm  r  R Ts  Tm
 Surface heat flux can be expressed as
T k  T r  r  R
q s  hx  Ts  Tm   k  hx  (8-10)
r r=R Ts  Tm
 For thermally fully developed region From (Eq.
(8-9))
 T r  r  R
 f  x
Ts  Tm

hx  f  x  Fully developed flow

hx  constant Fully developed flow

 The Heat Transfer
coefficient and Friction
factor
Developing Fully
region developed
region
Entry Lengths
Laminar flow
 Hydrodynamic

 Thermal
Lh ,laminar  0.05 Re D (8-11)

Turbulent flow
 L
Hydrodynamic t ,laminar  0.05 Re Pr D  Pr Lh ,laminar (8-12)

 Thermal (approximate)

Lh ,turbulent  1.359 D  Re1 4 (8-13)

Lh ,turbulent  Lt ,turbulent  10 D (8-14)

 Turbulent flow Nusselt Number
 The Nusselt numbers are much
higher in the entrance region.
 The Nusselt number reaches
a constant value at a distance
of less than 10 diameters.
 The Nusselt numbers for the
uniform surface temperature and uniform surface heat
flux conditions are identical in the fully developed
regions, and nearly identical in the entrance regions.
 Nusselt number is insensitive to the type of
thermal boundary condition.
 General Thermal Analysis
 In the absence of any work interactions, the
conservation of energy equation for the steady flow of a
fluid in a tube
(8-15)
 p  Te  Ti 
Q  mc (W)
 The thermal conditions at the surface can usually be
approximated as:
 constant surface temperature, or
 constant surface heat flux.

 The mean fluid temperature Tm must

change during heating or cooling.

 Either Ts= constant or qs = constant at the surface of a

tube, but not both.
 Constant Surface Heat Flux
 In the case of constant heat flux, the rate of heat
transfer can also be expressed as
 p  Te  Ti 
Q  q s As  mc (W) (8-17)
 Thenthe mean fluid temperature at the tube exit
becomes q s As
Te  Ti  (8-18)
mc p

 The surface temperature in the case of constant

q s (8-19) from
q s  h  Ts  Tm   Ts  Tm 
surface heat flux can be determined
h
 In the fully developed region, the
surface temperature Ts will also
increase linearly in the flow
direction
 Applying the steady-flow energy
balance to a tube slice of thickness
dx, the slope of the mean fluid
temperature Tm can bedT determined
q s p
 p dTm  q s  pdx  
mc m
  constant (8-20)
dx mc  p

 Noting that both the heat flux and

dTm dT
h (for fully developed
 flow)
s are
(8-21)
constants dx dx
 In the fully developed region (Ts-Tm=constant)

  Ts  T  1  Ts T  T dTs
 0    0 
x  Ts  Tm  Ts  Tm  x x  x dx
 Combining Eqs. 8–20, 8–21, and 8–22 gives
(8-22)

 For a circular tube

T dTs dTm q s p
    constant (8-23)
x dx dx mc
 p

T dTs dTm 2q s

    constant (8-24)
x dx dx Vavg c p R
 Constant Surface
Temperature
 The energy balance on a differential control
volume
 p dTm  h  Ts  Tm  dAs
 Q  mc (8-27)

 Since the mean temperature of the fluid Tm

increases in the flow direction the heat flux
decays with x.
 The surface temperature is constant (dTm=-d(Ts-
d  Ts  Tm  hp

Tm)) and dAs=pdx, therefore, dx (8-28)
Ts  Tm mc
 p
 Integrating Eq. 6-28 from x=0 (tube inlet where Tm=Ti) to x=L (tube exit
where Tm=Te) gives

Taking the exponential of both sides and solving for Te

Ts  Te

hAs
ln  (8-29)
 or Ts  Ti mc
 p

Te  Ts   Ts  Ti  exp  hpL mc
 p (8-30)

Tm  x   Ts   Ts  Ti  exp  hpx mc
 p
 The temperature difference between the fluid and
the surface decays exponentially in the flow
direction, and the rate of decay depends on the
magnitude of the exponent
hAs mc
 p
 This dimensionless parameter is
called the number of transfer
units (NTU).
 Large NTU value – increasing tube
length marginally increases heat
transfer rate.
 Small NTU value – heat transfer increases

significantly with increasing tube length.

 Solving Eq. 8–29 for mcp gives

hAs
 p
mc (8-31)
 Substituting this into  T8–15
ln Eq. s  Te   Ts  Ti  


where

Q  mc
 p  hAs Tln (8-32)

ln is the logarithmic mean temperature difference.

Ti  Te Te  Ti
Tln   (8-33)
ln  Ts  Te   Ts  Ti   ln  Te Ti 