Chapter 3.
0 : Convection
Introduction
Faculty of Chemical Engineering
UiTM Pasir Gudang
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Objectives
When you finish studying this chapter, you should
be able to:
• Understand the physical mechanism of convection, and its
classification,
• Visualize the development of velocity and thermal boundary layers
during flow over surfaces,
• Gain a working knowledge of the dimensionless Reynolds, Prandtl,
and Nusselt numbers,
• Distinguish between laminar and turbulent flows
Physical Mechanism of Convection
• Conduction and convection are similar in that both
mechanisms require the presence of a material medium.
• But they are different in that convection requires the presence
of fluid motion.
• Heat transfer through a liquid or gas can be by conduction or
convection, depending on the presence of any bulk fluid
motion.
• The fluid motion enhances heat transfer, since it brings
warmer and cooler chunks of fluid into contact, initiating
higher rates of conduction at a greater number of sites in a
fluid.
• Experience shows that convection heat transfer strongly
depends on the fluid properties:
– dynamic viscosity m,
– thermal conductivity k,
– density r, and
– specific heat cp, as well as the
– fluid velocity V.
• It also depends on the geometry and the roughness of the solid
surface.
• The rate of convection heat transfer is observed to be
proportional to the temperature difference and is expressed by
Newton’s law of cooling as
qconv h Ts T (W/m2 ) (6-1)
• The convection heat transfer coefficient h depends on the
several of the mentioned variables, and thus is difficult to
determine.
• All experimental observations indicate that a fluid in
motion comes to a complete stop at the surface and
assumes a zero velocity relative to the surface (no-slip).
• The no-slip condition is responsible for the development
of the velocity profile.
• The flow region adjacent
to the wall in which the
viscous effects (and thus
the velocity gradients) are
significant is called the boundary layer.
• An implication of the no-slip condition is that heat
transfer from the solid surface to the fluid layer
adjacent to the surface is by pure conduction, and can
be expressed as
T
qconv qcond k fluid (W/m2 ) (6-3)
y y 0
• Equating Eqs. 6–1 and 6–3 for the heat flux to obtain
k fluid T y y 0
h (W/m2 C) (6-4)
Ts T
• The convection heat transfer coefficient, in general,
varies along the flow direction.
The Nusselt Number
• It is common practice to nondimensionalize the heat transfer
coefficient h with the Nusselt number
hLc
Nu (6-5)
k
• Heat flux through the fluid layer by convection and by
conduction can be expressed as, respectively:
T
qconv hT (6-6) qcond k (6-7)
L
• Taking their ratio gives
qconv hT hL
Nu (6-8)
qcond k T / L k
• The Nusselt number represents the enhancement of heat transfer
through a fluid layer as a result of convection relative to
conduction across the same fluid layer.
• Nu=1 pure conduction.
Classification of Fluid Flows
• Viscous versus inviscid regions of flow
• Internal versus external flow
• Compressible versus incompressible flow
• Laminar versus turbulent flow
• Natural (or unforced) versus forced flow
• Steady versus unsteady flow
• One-, two-, and three-dimensional flows
Velocity Boundary Layer
• Consider the parallel flow of a fluid over a flat plate.
• x-coordinate: along the plate surface
• y-coordinate: from the surface in the normal direction.
• The fluid approaches the plate in the x-direction with a uniform
velocity V.
• Because of the no-slip condition V(y=0)=0.
• The presence of the plate is felt up to d.
• Beyond d the free-stream velocity remains essentially unchanged.
• The fluid velocity, u, varies from 0 at y=0 to nearly V at y=d.
Velocity Boundary Layer
• The region of the flow above the plate bounded by d
is called the velocity boundary layer.
• d is typically defined as
the distance y from the
surface at which
u=0.99V.
• The hypothetical line of
u=0.99V divides the flow over a plate into two
regions:
– the boundary layer region, and
– the irrotational flow region.
Thermal Boundary Layer
• Like the velocity a thermal boundary layer develops when a
fluid at a specified temperature flows over a surface that is at
a different temperature.
• Consider the flow of a fluid
at a uniform temperature of
T∞ over an isothermal flat
plate at temperature Ts.
• The fluid particles in the
layer adjacent assume the surface temperature Ts.
• A temperature profile develops that ranges from Ts at the
surface to T∞ sufficiently far from the surface.
• The thermal boundary layer ─ the flow region over the
surface in which the temperature variation in the direction
normal to the surface is significant.
• The thickness of the thermal boundary layer dt at any
location along the surface is defined as the distance
from the surface at which the temperature difference
T(y=dt)-Ts= 0.99(T∞-Ts).
• The thickness of the thermal boundary layer increases
in the flow direction.
• The convection heat transfer rate anywhere along the
surface is directly related to the temperature gradient
at that location.
Prandtl Number
• The relative thickness of the velocity and the
thermal boundary layers is best described by the
dimensionless parameter Prandtl number, defined
as
Molecular diffusivity of momentum m c p
Pr (6-12)
Molecular diffusivity of heat k
• Heat diffuses very quickly in liquid metals (Pr«1)
and very slowly in oils (Pr»1) relative to momentum.
• Consequently the thermal boundary layer is much
thicker for liquid metals and much thinner for oils
relative to the velocity boundary layer.
Laminar and Turbulent Flows
• Laminar flow ─ the flow is characterized by
smooth streamlines and highly-ordered
motion.
• Turbulent flow ─ the flow is
characterized by velocity
fluctuations and
highly-disordered motion.
• The transition from laminar
to turbulent flow does not
occur suddenly.
• The velocity profile in turbulent flow is much fuller than that in
laminar flow, with a sharp drop near the surface.
• The turbulent boundary layer can be considered to consist of
four regions:
– Viscous sublayer
– Buffer layer
– Overlap layer
– Turbulent layer
• The intense mixing in turbulent flow enhances heat and
momentum transfer, which increases the friction force on the
surface and the convection heat transfer rate.
Reynolds Number
• The transition from laminar to turbulent flow depends on the
surface geometry, surface roughness, flow velocity, surface
temperature, and type of fluid.
• The flow regime depends mainly on the ratio of the inertia forces
to viscous forces in the fluid.
• This ratio is called the Reynolds number, which is expressed for
external flow as
Inertia forces VLc rVLc
Re (6-13)
Viscous forces m
• At large Reynolds numbers (turbulent flow) the inertia forces are
large relative to the viscous forces.
• At small or moderate Reynolds numbers (laminar flow), the
viscous forces are large enough to suppress these fluctuations
and to keep the fluid “inline.”
• Critical Reynolds number ─ the Reynolds number at which the
flow becomes turbulent.
