Simplified method for estimating heat transfer coefficients: constant wall temperature case

Abstract

This work completes a previous study (Cruz et al., in J Heat Transf 134:091703, 2012) by evaluating the performance of the simplified method proposed therein for calculating the Nusselt number for laminar flow of non-Newtonian fluids in pipes with constant wall temperature. The methodology was tested using the Herschel-Bulkley, Bingham, Casson and Carreau-Yasuda generalized Newtonian models, and also the simplified form of the Phan-Thien–Tanner viscoelastic model. The error of the approximate methodology is below 3 %, except for yield stress fluids, for which the maximum error increases to 7.4 % for the cases analyzed, which cover a wide range of shear viscosity curves. An explicit expression of Nusselt number for Casson fluids is also presented.