CHAPTER 9

Convection
 9.1 Introduction to Convection
• It is well known that a hot plate of metal will cooled faster
when placed in front of a fan than when exposed to still air.
We say that the heat is convected away, and we call the
process convection heat transfer.
• Convection heat transfer is complicated by the fact that it
involves fluid motion as well as heat conduction. The fluid
motion enhances heat transfer, since it brings hotter and
cooler chunks of fluid into contact, initiating higher rates of
conduction at a greater number of sites in a fluid. Therefore,
the rate of heat transfer through a fluid is much higher by
convection than it is by conduction. In fact, the higher the
fluid velocity, the higher the rate of heat transfer.
9.2 Types of Convection Heat transfer
• Convection is classified as natural (or free) and forced
convection depending on how the fluid motion is initiated.
• In natural convection, any fluid motion is caused by
natural means such as the buoyancy effect, i.e. the rise of
warmer fluid and fall the cooler fluid. The temperature of
the air adjacent to the hot object is higher, thus its density
is lower. As a result, the heated air rises. This movement is
called the natural convection current. Note that in the
absence of this movement, heat transfer would be by
conduction only and its rate would be much lower.
• In forced convection, the fluid is forced to flow over a
surface or in a tube by external means such as a pump or
fan.
Fig. 9.1 types of heat transfer
(a) Forced convection (b) Free
Convection (C) Conduction
9.3 Newton’s law of cooling and significant of heat
transfer coefficient
• Experience shows that convection heat transfer strongly
depends on the fluid properties dynamic viscosity , thermal
conductivity k, density , and specific heat Cp, as well as the
fluid velocity . It also depends on the geometry and the
roughness of the solid surface, in addition to the type of
fluid flow (such as being streamlined or turbulent). Thus,
we expect the convection heat transfer relations to be
rather complex because of the dependence of convection on
so many variables. This is not surprising, since convection
is the most complex mechanism of heat transfer.
• Despite the complexity of convection, the rate of convection
heat transfer is observed to be proportional to the
temperature difference and is conveniently expressed by
Newton’s law of cooling as
 (9.1)
Or

•The convection heat transfer coefficient h can be defined

as the rate of heat transfer between a solid surface and a fluid
per unit surface area per unit temperature difference.
•The convective heat transfer coefficient h strongly depends on
the fluid properties and roughness of the solid surface, and the
type of the fluid flow (laminar or turbulent).
•You should not be deceived by the simple appearance of this
relation, because the convection heat transfer coefficient h
depends on the several of the mentioned variables, and thus is
difficult to determine.
 9.4 Some relevant concept of fluid flow
• Convection heat transfer is closely tied with fluid mechanics,
which is the science that deals with the behavior of fluids at
rest or in motion, and the interaction of fluids with solids or
other fluids at the boundaries.
• Viscous versus Inviscid Flow
• Internal versus External Flow
• Compressible versus Incompressible Flow
• Laminar versus Turbulent Flow
• Natural (or Unforced) versus Forced Flow
• Steady versus Unsteady (Transient) Flow
• One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Flow
9.5 the convective boundary layer in a flat plate

Fig. 9.2
 THERMAL BOUNDARY LAYER
• We have seen that a velocity boundary layer develops when a
fluid flows over a surface as a result of the fluid layer
adjacent to the surface assuming the surface velocity (i.e.,
zero velocity relative to the surface). Also, we defined the
velocity boundary layer as the region in which the fluid
velocity varies from zero to 0.99ua. Likewise, 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 Ta
over an isothermal flat plate at temperature Ts.
• The flow region over the surface in which the temperature
variation in the direction normal to the surface is significant
is the thermal boundary layer.
 (9.2)

Fig 9.3 Thermal boundary layer on a flat plate

• The thickness of the thermal boundary layer δt at any location
along the surface is defined as the distance from the surface at
which the temperature difference T - Ts equals 0.99(Ta - Ts).
Note that for the special case of Ts = 0, we have T = 0.99Ta at
the outer edge of the thermal boundary layer.
Prandtl Number
• The relative thickness of the velocity and the thermal
boundary layers is best described by the dimensionless
parameter Prandtl number, defined as

(9.3)
Nusselt number:
• non‐dimensional heat transfer coefficient

(9.4)
9.6 Forced Convection: Laminar and Turbulent Flow
Flow across Cylinders and Spheres
• The characteristic length for a circular tube or sphere is the
external diameter, D, and the Reynolds number is defined:

(9.5)
• The critical Re for the flow across spheres or tubes is 2x105.
The approaching fluid to the cylinder (a sphere) will branch
out and encircle the body, forming a boundary layer.
• At low Re (Re < 4) numbers the fluid completely wraps
around the body. At higher Re numbers, the fluid is too fast
to remain attached to the surface as it approaches the top of
the cylinder. Thus, the boundary layer detaches from the
surface, forming a wake behind the body. This point is called
the separation point.
• To reduce the drag coefficient, streamlined bodies are more
suitable, e.g. airplanes are built to resemble birds and
submarine to resemble fish.
• The average heat transfer coefficient for cross‐flow over a
cylinder can be found from the correlation presented by
Churchill and Bernstein:

• where fluid properties are evaluated at the film temperature

Tf = (Ts + T∞)/2.
• For flow over a sphere, Whitaker recommended the following:

• which is valid for 3.5 < Re < 80,000 and 0.7 < Pr < 380.
The entrance region (Internal Flow)
• The region of flow over which the thermal boundary layer
develops and reaches the tube center is called the thermal
entrance region, and the length of this region is called the
thermal entry length Lt. Flow in the thermal entrance
region is called thermally developing flow since this is the
region where the temperature profile develops. The region
beyond the thermal entrance region in which the
dimensionless temperature profile expressed as (Ts - T)/ (Ts -
Tm) remains unchanged is called the thermally fully
developed region.
• The region in which the flow is both hydrodynamically and
thermally developed and thus both the velocity and
dimensionless temperature profiles remain unchanged is
called fully developed flow. That is,
Fig 3.4 The development of the thermal boundary layer in a
tube.
 Uniform heat flux at wall
• In the case of = constant, the rate of heat transfer can also
be expressed as
(9.6)
• Then the mean fluid temperature at the tube exit becomes

• Note that the mean fluid temperature increases linearly in

the flow direction in the case of constant surface heat flux,
since the surface area increases linearly in the flow direction
(As is equal to the perimeter, which is constant, times the
tube length).
• The surface temperature in the case of constant surface heat
flux can be determined from

(9.7)
• In the fully developed region, the surface temperature Ts will
also increase linearly in the flow direction since h is constant
and thus Ts - Tm = constant

(9.8)
• where p is the perimeter of the tube.

(9.9)
(9.10)

• since Ts - Tm = constant. Combining Eqs. 9.8, 9.9, and 9.10

gives

(9.11)
• For a circular tube, p = 2pR and m = rvm Ac = r vm (pR2), and
Eq. 9.11 becomes
 Natural Convection
• Since free convection flow velocities are generally much
smaller than those associated with forced convection, the
corresponding convection transfer rates are also smaller.
• In many systems involving multimode heat transfer effects,
free convection provides the largest resistance to heat
transfer and therefore plays an important role in the design
or performance of the system. Moreover, when it is desirable
to minimize heat transfer rates or to minimize operating
cost, free convection is often preferred to forced convection.
• Free convection strongly influences the operating
temperatures of power generating and electronic devices. It
plays a major role in a vast array of thermal manufacturing
applications.
• Free convection is important in establishing temperature
distributions within buildings and in determining heat losses
or heat loads for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning
systems. Free convection distributes the poisonous products
of combustion during fires and is relevant to the
environmental sciences, where it drives oceanic and
atmospheric motions, as well as the related heat transfer and
mass transfer processes.
• In free convection fluid motion is due to buoyancy forces
within the fluid, while in forced convection it is externally
imposed. Buoyancy is due to the combined presence of a fluid
density gradient and a body force that is proportional to
density.
• Consider a laminar boundary layer flow (Fig 9.5) that is
driven by buoyancy forces.
 Fig. 9.5 Boundary layer
development on a heated
vertical plate.
• The appropriate form of the x-momentum equation is then

(3.12)
• where dPa/dx is the free stream pressure gradient in the
quiescent region outside the boundary layer. In this region,
u = 0 and Equation 3.27 reduces to

(3.13)
• Substituting Equation 3.13 into 3.12, we obtain the
following expression:

(3.14)
• If density variations are due only to temperature variations,
the term may be related to a fluid property known as the
volumetric thermal expansion coefficient
 (9.15)
• This thermodynamic property of the fluid provides a measure
of the amount by which the density changes in response to a
change in temperature at constant pressure. If it is
expressed in the following approximate form,

(9.16)
• The x-momentum equation becomes

(9.17)
• The set of governing equations is then

(9.18)

(9.19)
 (9.20)
• Free convection effects obviously depend on the expansion
coefficient . The manner in which is obtained depends on the
fluid. For an ideal gas, p/RT and

(9.21)
• where T is the absolute temperature.
• Then, ReL becomes
ReL = (9.22)
• It is customary to define the Grashof number GrL as the
square of this Reynolds number:

(9.23)