9.

Nusselt Number Example Calculation

355

downward flow. On the right (air) side, the wall is hotter than the free stream air
temperature, and the air in the thermal boundary layer is less dense than ambient air
far from the mug, and gravity induces an upward flow. Note the no-slip condition,
where the velocity of the fluid in contact with the solid is motionless.
So for modeling purposes, the coffee side (inner surface) can be classified as a
natural convection on a vertical heated plate of height H, and width D. The air side
(outer surface) can be classified as a natural convection on a vertical cooled plate of
height H0 and width (D + 2w).
A difficulty with this case is that the temperatures of the two fluids can be
considered to be known (at an instant in time), but the temperatures of the two solid
surfaces that they see are not known. The convection coefficients depend on the
temperatures of the solid surfaces for these natural convection cases. The way
around that circular argument is to develop an iterative procedure, a trial and
error approach, developed later in this chapter. The key step in this iterative
procedure is the calculation of the convection coefficients for an assumed value
of surface and fluid temperatures. The problem will now be recast in a way that
obviates, for now, the need for iteration.

9.2

Nusselt Number Example Calculation

Problem Statement
Calculate the convection coefficient between a vertical solid surface of height
H 0.098 m maintained at a temperature Tsurface and an adjacent stagnant fluid
maintained at temperature Tfluid. Consider a range of temperatures for air and liquid
water.
Analysis
A power law relationship (y axb) between the Nusselt number and Rayleigh
number has been shown to correlate a wide range of data for natural convection
situations:

m
NuH C Gr H Prf
The constants C and m take on different values depending on the value of the
Rayleigh number (Ra GrHPrf). Table 9.1 lists published values for two ranges
that occur in the case study under investigation. These ranges span nine orders of
magnitude in the Rayleigh number, and thereby cover most practical problems of
interest. For cases where the Rayleigh number is below the lowest range can be
handled approximately by either treating the fluid as non-moving (a solid) or using
the lowest value of Rayleigh number. This table will be modified shortly because it
leads to a discontinuity at the point of transition (at Ra 109).

356

Nusselt Number Correlations

Table 9.1 Published values of constants used in the Nusselt number correlation for natural
convection on vertical plates
Rayleigh number range
(10)4(10)9
(10)9(10)13

Flow character
Laminar
Turbulent

C
0.59
0.021

m
0.25
0.40

Fig. 9.2 Properties

of saturated liquid water
at three temperatures

9.2.1

Property Values and Their Temperature Dependency

All the dimensionless parameters depend on fluid properties, whose values depend
to some extent on the value of the temperature. There are a variety of sources of
fluid properties, and care must be taken to properly interpret the units and
exponents. Figure 9.2 lists fluid properties, for saturated liquid water at three
temperature values, taken from an online source.1 The compressed liquid approximation, namely that thermodynamic properties are generally functions of temperature only (not pressure), is invoked in using these parameter values (as long as the
pressure is above the saturation pressure for that temperature).
Figure 9.3 lists fluid properties for atmospheric air at the same temperatures.2
The only property value that depends significantly on pressure is the density, and
the ideal gas law can be used when needed for problems at other than atmospheric
pressure.
In both of these tables, the properties listed in the reference source are listed in the
top section, and those properties derived from the others are listed in the DERIVED
section. For air, properties were listed only at 60 and 80  C, and the values at 70  C
are from linear interpolations. Different sources may list different properties.
To organize these property values and their combinations, it is possible to
consider five of them as being primary property values (, cp, k, , ) and the others
1
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-thermal-properties-d_162.html. Accessed
2010.
2
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-properties-d_156.html. Accessed 10/19/2010.

10/19/