Chapter One - Prediction of the Influence of Energetic Chemical Reactions on Forced Convective Heat Transfer

Abstract

Abstract Although energetic chemical reactions have been known for at least 50 years to either enhance or attenuate both external and internal forced convective heat transfer strongly, this effect, let alone its explanation, does not appear to have been mentioned in any textbook on transport, heat transfer, reaction engineering, or process design. The enhancement or attenuation of internal forced convection are described and explained herein by means of a combination of essentially exact numerical solutions and of approximate, closed-form asymptotic expressions. The complexity and the additional parameters introduced by the localized generation of the heat of reaction and the exponential dependence of the reaction-rate constant on temperature appear to preclude a generalized predictive or correlative equation for the enhancement and attenuation. However, the numerical solution of a realistic model on a case-by-case basis is demonstrated to be a feasible alternative.