Laminar free convection heat transfer from isothermal convex bodies of arbitrary shape: a new dynamic model

Abstract

Calculation of free convection from bodies of arbitrary shape has been investigated previously. The Body Gravity Function (BGF) which accounts for the geometry of each body shape was considered to be a constant value. In the present study, it is shown that BGF is not a constant value in a wide range of Rayleigh number. Instead, its value changes as Rayleigh number increases. Therefore, by analytical modeling of Dynamic BGF and derivation of a new parameter called Body Fluid Function, a novel method is proposed to calculate laminar free convection heat transfer from isothermal convex bodies of arbitrary shape. Results for 24 different body shapes are compared with the available experimental and numerical data. Excellent agreement shows that the present simple method accurately predicts laminar free convection heat transfer from isothermal convex bodies of arbitrary shape in the whole range of laminar flow and for fluids of any Prandtl number.