Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras

ME 6011 Convective Heat Transfer

Assignment - 4 (Laminar Internal Forced Convection) Due: April 9, 2013

Note: The assignments will be individually evaluated and penalized if found to be copied from
colleagues.

1) Consider hydrodynamically fully developed steady laminar flow of a constant property

fluid in a plane duct (2-D Channel) with a separation distance of ‘2d’ between the two
plates. Derive an equation for the fully developed velocity profile. Show that the
maximum velocity is 1.5 times the mean velocity.

2) Consider a thermally fully developed flow between two parallel plates maintained at a
uniform wall heat flux in addition to the conditions mentioned in problem (1). Neglecting
axial conduction of heat, derive an expression for the non-dimensional temperature in this
regime. Show that the Nusselt number in the fully developed regime equals 8.2.

3) Consider both hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed laminar flow through the
annulus of a concentric circular duct as shown below:

Assume that a heat flux of q0(W/m2) is applied to the outer tube surface of radius, r0 and
the inner tube surface of radius ri, is maintained at qi = q0. Derive expressions for the
fully developed velocity and temperature profile inside the annular region. Obtain a
relationship for the Nusselt number at the outer tube wall in terms of the ratio of inner
and outer tube radii r* = ri/r0. Show that in the limiting case of r* tending to unity, the
Nusselt number approaches that of a 2D plane duct case considered in problem 2.
Hint: The Re and Nu are to be defined for the annulus flow based on an equivalent
hydraulic diameter dh = 4A/P.

4) Use shooting technique combined with the Newton-Raphson iterative scheme to

determine the Nusselt number for fully developed flow and heat transfer in a circular tube
subjected to a constant wall temperature boundary condition.
 Hint: The shooting technique is to be applied to solve the ODE for non-dimensional
temperature as a function of non-dimensional radial coordinate by iteratively guessing
the value of Nusselt no., Nu, as described in class.

5) Repeat problem (4) assuming a slug flow (uniform) velocity profile across the entire
cross section of the pipe. Compare the values of Nusselt numbers between the two cases.
In which case is the Nusselt number higher? Discuss why?

6) Obtain a solution for the Cartesian Graetz problem (thermally developing flow) for slug
flow between two parallel plates maintained at a constant wall temperature. Derive an
expression for the local Nusselt number in the thermally developing region as a function
of Graetz number (Gz). Plot the variation of Nusselt number as a function of 1/Gz by
considering only the first three dominant Eigenvalues in the summation. Show that the
asymptotic solution leads to a value close to 10 corresponding to the thermally fully
developed region.

7) Consider hydrodynamically fully developed steady laminar flow of a constant property

fluid through a circular pipe with a constant heat flux condition maintained at the pipe
wall. Neglect axial conduction of heat and assume that the velocity profile can be
approximated to be uniform across the pipe (slug flow). Obtain an expression for the
local Nusselt number in the thermal entrance region of the pipe and plot it as a function
of 1/Gz. What is the asymptotic value of the Nusselt number for larges values of axial
coordinate?
Hint: Follow the posting on ‘moodle’ related to the Cartesian Graetz problem with
constant wall flux BC and perform a similar analysis.

8) Solve problem (6) by the integral method by assuming a cubic temperature profile.
Compare the expression for Nu obtained from the analytical solution (6) with the
approximate soln. Determine the expression for Nu as a function of Gz if the slug flow
profile is replaced with a fully developed parabolic velocity profile.

9) Derive an expression for local Nusselt number in the thermal entry length region of
Couette flow with the top wall moving at a velocity U and the bottom wall stationary and
the walls subjected to a constant temperature boundary condition. Use a cubic
temperature profile and the integral method for solution. Neglect viscous dissipation.