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Laminar heat transfer of high-viscosity Newtonian fluids in horizontal rectangular ducts

Journal Article · · Int. Chem. Eng.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5920056

The friction factor and Nusselt number for a highly viscous Newtonian fluid in laminar flow in the thermal entrance region of a horizontal rectangular duct with a uniform wall temperature were investigated theoretically and experimentally. In the theoretical study, a finite-difference method was used to determine the effect of viscosity changes due to temperature, while the experiments involved heating glycol with saturated steam at atmospheric pressure. Based on the numerical results, a power of the viscosity ratio was incorporated in the correlations for the friction factor and the Nusselt number to take into account the temperature dependence of the viscosity at various viscosity ratios and for rectangular ducts with aspect ratios ..gamma.. = 0.25 to 1. When the experimental results were correlated on the basis of this viscosity ratio, the pressure drop and the Nusselt number both agreed fairly well with the theoretical solution for constant viscosity.

Research Organization:
Dept. of Mechanical Eng., Faculty of Eng., Daido Inst. of Tech., Nagoya 457, Japan
OSTI ID:
5920056
Journal Information:
Int. Chem. Eng.; (United States), Journal Name: Int. Chem. Eng.; (United States) Vol. 22:3; ISSN INCEA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English