The effects of property evaluation methods on the correlation of heat transfer data

Abstract

The use of dimensionless parameters in heat transfer problems has the advantage of reducing the number of variables that must be considered in constructing a correlation for heat transfer data. However, the reduction to dimensionless parameters tends to cover up factors which can be of use to the researcher. Once such factor, discussed here, is the dependence of the heat transfer coefficient and the dimensionless parameters on the temperature difference ..delta..T. By explicitly considering the behavior of the dimensionless parameters as functions of the underlying physical variables, such at ..delta..T or the characteristic dimension L, information can be made available for constructing better correlations. Finally, only natural convection problems were considered.