EXTERNAL FORCED CONVECTION

1.

Flow of Hot Oil over a Flat Plate: Engine oil at 608C flows over the upper surface of
a 5-m-long flat plate whose temperature is 208C with a velocity of 2 m/s. Determine the
total drag force and the rate of heat transfer per unit width of the entire plate.

2.

Prevention of Fire Hazard in the Event of Oil Leakage: Heat dissipated from

an engine in operation can cause hot spots on its surface. If the outer surface of an engine
is situated in a place where oil leakage is possible, then when leaked oil comes in contact
with hot spots above the oils auto ignition temperature, it can ignite spontaneously.
Consider an engine cover that is made of a stainless steel plate with a thickness of 1 cm
and a thermal conductivity of 14 W/mK. The stainless steel plate is covered with a 5-mmthick insulation (k = 0.5 W/mK). The inner surface of the engine cover is exposed to hot
air at 3500C with a convection heat transfer coefficient of 7 W/m 2K (Fig). The 2-m-long
engine outer surface is cooled by air blowing in parallel over it at 7 m/s, in an environment
where the ambient air is at 60 0C. To prevent fire hazard in the event of oil leak on the
engine cover, the engine cover surface should be kept below 1808C. It has been
determined that the 5-mm-thick insulation layer is not sufficient to keep the engine cover
surface below 1800C. To solve this problem, one of the plant supervisors suggested
adjusting the blower capacity to provide an increase in the cooling air velocity by 10%.
Determine if this is a viable method for keeping the engine cover surface below 180 0C.
Evaluate the air properties at 1200C.

3.

Cooling of Plastic Sheets by Forced Air: The forming section of a plastics plant

puts out a continuous sheet of plastic that is 4 ft wide and 0.04 in thick at a velocity of 30
ft/min. The temperature of the plastic sheet is 200 0F when it is exposed to the surrounding
air, and a 2-ft-long section of the plastic sheet is subjected to air flow at 80 0F at a velocity
of 10 ft/s on both sides along its surfaces normal to the direction of motion of the sheet, as
shown infig. Determine (a) the rate of heat transfer from the plastic sheet to air by forced
convection and radiation and (b) the temperature of the plastic sheet at the end of the
cooling section. Take the density, specific heat, and emissivity of the plastic sheet to be r =
75 lbm/ft3, cp = 0.4 Btu/lbm0F, and e = 0.9.

4.

Drag Force Acting on a Pipe in a River: A 2.2-cm-outer-diameter pipe is to span

across a river at a 30-m-wide section while being completely immersed in water (Fig)The
average flow velocity of water is 4 m/s and the water temperature is 15 0C. Determine the
drag force exerted on the pipe by the river.

5.

Heat Loss from a Steam Pipe in Windy Air: A long 10-cm-diameter steam pipe
whose external surface temperature is 1100C passes through some open area that is not
protected against the winds (Fig). Determine the rate of heat loss from the pipe per unit of
its length when the air is at 1 atm pressure and 10 0C and the wind is blowing across the
pipe at a velocity of 8 m/s.

6. Cooling of a Steel Ball by Forced Air: A 25-cm-diameter stainless steel ball (r =

8055 kg/m3, cp = 480 J/kg.K) is removed from the oven at a uniform temperature of 300 0C
(Fig). The ball is then subjected to the flow of air at 1 atm pressure and 25 0C with a velocity
of 3 m/s. The surface temperature of the ball eventually drops to 200 0C. Determine the
average convection heat transfer coefficient during this cooling process and estimate how
long the process will take.