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
