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Chapter 5 Slide

This document discusses free convection, which is the natural transfer of heat from a surface due to temperature differences without any external sources of flow. It provides qualitative descriptions and flow patterns of free convection. It also presents various heat transfer correlations for calculating heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers in free convection based on parameters like Grashof number, Rayleigh number, and characteristic length. It includes examples of calculating heat transfer rates from surfaces by free convection. Finally, it discusses combined free and forced convection in situations where both effects need to be considered.

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333 views25 pages

Chapter 5 Slide

This document discusses free convection, which is the natural transfer of heat from a surface due to temperature differences without any external sources of flow. It provides qualitative descriptions and flow patterns of free convection. It also presents various heat transfer correlations for calculating heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers in free convection based on parameters like Grashof number, Rayleigh number, and characteristic length. It includes examples of calculating heat transfer rates from surfaces by free convection. Finally, it discusses combined free and forced convection in situations where both effects need to be considered.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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Chapter 5 FREE CONVECTION

1. QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTION OF FREE CONVECTION FLOWS

Fig. 5.2 Free convection boundary layer: (a) along a heated plate, (b) along a hot vertical wire, and (c) plume over a
hot horizontal cylinder.
Fig. 5.3 Benard cells in a layer of liquid
heated from below (schematic).
Fig. 5.4 Free convection flow patterns: (a) on a cold vertical surface,
(b) on a hot surface facing up, (c) on a cold surface facing up, (d) on a
hot surface facing down, (e) on a cold surface facing down, and (f) on
a vertical enclosure with cold parallel surfaces.
2. HEAT TRANSFER CORRELATIONS FOR FREE CONVECTION

Grashof number

g is the acceleration due to gravity Rayleigh number, RaL


L is a characteristic length
To is the ambient fluid temperature
Ts is the surface temperature
 is the fluid density
P is the total pressure.
Nu = f(Ra,Pr)
For a vertical plate, hot or cold, the following equation suggested by Churchill and
Chu (1975) may be used for the entire range of Rayleigh number.

However, if the free convective flow over the plate is laminar (i.e. RaL<109),
the following equation gives a better prediction.
Example 5.1 A furnace with a steel door, having an inner lining of an insulating material,
is at a temperature of 65°C. The door, 1.5 m high and 1 m wide, loses heat to an ambient at
25°C. Calculate the rate of heat loss from the door at steady state.
Different flow situations arise when heat transfer by natural convection occurs from a
horizontal plate depending upon whether the plate is hot or cold, or whether the heat
transfer surface faces up or down. The nature of flow in such cases has been shown
qualitatively before. A characteristic length in all these cases is defined as below.
Example 5.2 A thin metal plate 1 m  1 m is placed on a rooftop. It receives radiant heat
from the sun directly at the rate of 170 W/m2. If heat transfer from the plate to the ambient
occurs purely by free convection, calculate the steady state temperature of the plate.
Assume that there is no heat loss from the bottom of the plate. The ambient temperature is
25°C.
Free convection from a cylinder

For heat transfer from or to a horizontal cylinder, Morgan (1975) recommended a


correlation of the following form

The following correlation by Churchill and Chu (1975) may also be used for free
convection heat transfer calculation from a horizontal cylinder.
Example 5.3 A long horizontal cylindrical carbon steel rod, 2.54 cm in diameter and 40 cm
long, at 80°C cools down by free convection heat transfer to an ambient at 30°C. Calculate
the time required for cooling of the rod down to 35°C. Assume that the temperature of the
rod remains uniform at any instant. The following simple correlation (applicable for free
convection heat transfer from a horizontal cylinder in air) may be used: h = 1.32 (T/d)0.25
W/m2 °C, where T (°C) is the temperature difference between the surface and the ambient,
and d (in m) is the diameter of the cylinder. For carbon steel,  = 7800 kg/m3, cp = 0.473
kJ/kg °C.
COMBINED FREE AND FORCED CONVECTION

There are practical situations in which the contributions of both free and forced
convection should be taken into account for heat transfer calculations. The following
conditions determine the regimes of free convection, forced convection, and combined
free and forced convection (or mixed convection).
If heat transfer occurs in the mixed convection regime, the following equation may be
used to calculate the Nusselt number.

where Nuforced and Nufree are Nusselt numbers for forced and free convection,
respectively. A value of m = 3 is usually recommended. A positive or a negative sign is
taken depending upon whether the free convection flow occurs in the same or the
opposite direction of forced convection flow.

Example 5.5 A horizontal section of an uninsulated pipe, 60 mm o.d., carrying warm


water runs below an exhaust fan in a factory shed. The fan creates a suction that causes a
mild upward cross-flow velocity of 0.3 m/s on the pipe. If the pipe wall temperature is
60°C, calculate the rate of heat loss by the combined free and forced convection per metre
length of the pipe. The ambient air temperature is 30°C.
1. A horizontal steam pipe, 78 mm i.d. and 89 mm o.d., carries saturated steam at 15
kg/cm2 gauge pressure. It is lagged only with a 2 cm thick layer of pre-formed
mineral fibre of thermal conductivity 0.05 W/m °C which is exposed to ambient air at
25°C. Calculate the rate of heat loss by free convection per metre length of the pipe.
2. The sulphur dioxide converter in a sulphuric acid plant is a tall cylindrical vessel
housing four catalyst chambers for stage-wise conversion to sulphur trioxide with inter-
stage cooling of the gas mixture. A 100 tpd (tons per day) plant has a converter 10.5 m in
height and 4 m in diameter. It is insulated with a layer of mineral wool (ki = 0.0602 kcal/ h
m °C). Although the temperature in the reactor varies from one stage to another, an average
reactor wall temperature of 460°C may be assumed. If heat loss from the insulated reactor
occurs only by free convection, what thickness of insulation should be used so that the
insulation skin temperature does not exceed 65°C? The ambient temperature may be taken
as 30°C.

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