External Flow: Flow over Bluff

Objects (Cylinders, Spheres)

Chapter 7
Sections 7.4 through 7.8
Cylinder in Cross Flow

The Cylinder in Cross Flow

Conditions depend on special features of boundary layer development, including
onset at a stagnation point and separation, as well as transition to turbulence.

Stagnation point: Location of zero velocity u 0 and maximum pressure.

Followed by boundary layer development under a favorable pressure gradient

dp / dx 0 and hence acceleration of the free stream flow du / dx 0 .
As the rear of the cylinder is approached, the pressure must begin to increase.
Hence, there is a minimum in the pressure distribution, p(x), after which boundary
layer development occurs under the influence of an adverse pressure gradient
dp / dx 0, du / dx 0 .
Cylinder in Cross Flow (cont.)

Separation occurs when the velocity gradient du / dy y 0 reduces to zero

and is accompanied by flow reversal and a downstream wake.

Location of separation depends on boundary layer transition.

VD VD
Re D

Cylinder in Cross Flow (cont.)

Force imposed by the flow is due to the combination of friction and form drag.
The dimensionless form of the drag force is
FD
CD Figure 7.9

A f V 2 / 2
Cylinder in Cross Flow (cont.)

Heat Transfer Considerations

An empirical correlation due to Hilpert [11] that has been modified to
account for fluids of various Prandtl numbers,

(7.52)

is widely used for Pr 0.7, where the constants C and m are listed in Table
7.2. All properties are evaluated at the film temperature.
Heat Transfer Considerations
Equation 7.52 may also be used for flow over cylinders of noncircular cross
section, with the characteristic length D and the constants obtained from
Table 7.3.
 Heat Transfer Considerations
Other correlations have been suggested for the circular cylinder in cross flow
[15, 16, 17]. The correlation due to Zukauskas [16] is of the form

(7.53)

where all properties are evaluated at T, except Prs, which is evaluated at Ts.
Values of C and m are listed in Table 7.4. If Pr 10, n = 0.37; if Pr 10, n = 0.36.
Heat Transfer Considerations
Churchill and Bernstein [17] have proposed a single comprehensive equation that
covers the entire range of ReD for which data are available, as well as a wide range of
Pr. The equation is recommended for all ReD Pr 0.2 and has the form

The Average Nusselt Number Nu D hD / k :
Churchill and Bernstein Correlation:
4/5
0.62Re Pr 1/ 2 1/ 3 Re
5/8

Nu D 0.3 D
1 D
(7.54)
2 / 3 1/ 4
1 0.4 / Pr 282,000

where all properties are evaluated at the film temperature

Again we caution the reader not to view any of the foregoing correlations as sacrosanct. Each
correlation is reasonable over a certain range of conditions, but for most engineering
calculations one should not expect accuracy to much better than 20%. Because they are based
on more recent results encompassing a wide range of conditions, Equations 7.53 and 7.54 are
generally used for the calculations of this text.
Flow Across Tube Banks
Heat transfer to or from a bank (or bundle) of tubes in cross flow is relevant to
numerous industrial applications, such as steam generation in a boiler or air cooling
in the coil of an air conditioner. Typically, one fluid moves over the tubes, while a
second fluid at a different temperature passes through the tubes.
Flow Across Tube Banks
The tube rows of a bank can be either aligned or staggered in the direction of the
fluid velocity V (Figure 7.12). The configuration is characterized by the tube
diameter D and by the transverse pitch ST and longitudinal pitch SL measured
between tube centers. Flow conditions within the bank are dominated by boundary
layer separation effects and by wake interactions, which in turn influence convection
heat transfer.

Aligned and Staggered Arrays:

Flow Across Tube Banks
Flow around the tubes in the first row of a tube bank is similar to that for a single
(isolated) cylinder in cross flow. Correspondingly, the heat transfer coefficient for a
tube in the first row is approximately equal to that for a single tube in cross flow. For
downstream rows, flow conditions depend strongly on the tube bank arrangement
(Figure 7.13).
Flow Across Tube Banks
Typically, the convection coefficient of a row increases with increasing row number
until approximately the fifth row, after which there is little change in flow conditions
and hence in the convection coefficient.
For large SL, the influence of upstream rows decreases, and heat transfer in the
downstream rows is not enhanced. For this reason, operation of aligned tube banks
with ST/SL < 0.7 is undesirable.
For the staggered tube array, the path of the main flow is more tortuous, and mixing
of the cross-flowing fluid is increased relative to the aligned tube arrangement. In
general, heat transfer enhancement is favored by the more tortuous flow of a
staggered arrangement, particularly for small Reynolds numbers (ReD 100).
Typically, we wish to know the average heat transfer coefficient for the entire tube
bank. Zukauskas [16] has proposed a correlation of the form
Flow Across Tube Banks
(7.58)

where NL is the number of tube rows, all properties except Prs are evaluated at the arithmetic mean of the
fluid inlet (Ti = T) and outlet (To) temperatures, and the constants C1 and m are listed in Table 7.5.
Flow Across Tube Banks
If there are 20 or fewer rows of tubes, NL 20, the average heat transfer
coefficient is typically reduced, and a correction factor may be applied such
that

where C is given in Table 7.6.

2

The Reynolds number ReD,max for the foregoing correlation is based on the
maximum fluid velocity occurring within the tube bank.
Tube Banks

Flow Across Tube Banks

A common geometry for Aligned and Staggered Arrays:

two-fluid heat exchangers.

ST
Aligned: Vmax V
ST D

Staggered: ST
Vmax V if 2 S D D ST D
ST D

ST
or, Vmax V if 2 S D D ST D

2 SD D
Flow Across Tube Banks
the heat transfer rate could be significantly over predicted by using T = Ts - T as
the temperature difference in Newtons law of cooling.
As the fluid moves through the bank, its temperature approaches Ts and T
decreases. In Chapter 8, the appropriate form of T is shown to be a log-mean
temperature difference.

where Ti and To are temperatures of the fluid as it enters and leaves the bank,
respectively.
Fluid Outlet Temperature (To) :
Ts To DNh
exp
Ts Ti VNT ST c p

N NT x N L
where N is the total number of tubes in the bank and NT is the number of tubes in
each row.
Tube Banks (cont.)

Flow Across Tube Banks

Once Tlm is known, the heat transfer rate per unit length of the tubes may be
computed from

T m
Ts Ti Ts To Total Heat Rate:
Ts Ti q hAs T m
n
Ts To As N DL

Pressure Drop:

The power required to move the fluid across the bank is often a major operating
expense and is directly proportional to the pressure drop, which may be expressed as
[16]
Vmax
2

p N L f
2

, f Figures 7.14 and 7.15

Flow Across Tube Banks
Flow Across Tube Banks
Examples
7.72: In an extrusion process, copper wire emerges from the extruder at a velocity Ve and is cooled by
convection heat transfer to air in cross flow over the wire, as well as by radiation to the surroundings.
a) By applying conservation of energy to a differential control surface of length dx, which either
moves with the wire or is stationary and through which the wire passes, derive a differential equation
that governs the temperature distribution, T(x), along the wire. In your derivation, the effect of axial
conduction along the wire may be neglected. Express your result in terms of the velocity, diameter,
and properties of the wire (Ve, D, , cp, ), the convection coefficient associated with the cross flow,
and the environmental temperatures (T, Tsur). (b) Neglecting radiation, obtain a closed form solution
to the foregoing equation. For Ve = 0.2 m/s, D = 5 mm, V = 5 m/s, T =25C, and an initial wire
temperature of Ti = 600C, compute the temperature To of the wire at x = L = 5 m. The density and
specific heat of the copper are = 8900 kg/m3 and cp = 400 J/kgK, while properties of the air may be
taken to be k = 0.037 W/mK, = 310-5 m2/s, and Pr = 0.69.
Examples
7.93 An air duct heater consists of an aligned array of electrical heating elements in which the
longitudinal and transverse pitches are SL = ST =24 mm. There are 3 rows of elements in the flow
direction (NL = 3) and 4 elements per row (NT =4). Atmospheric air with an upstream velocity of 12
m/s and a temperature of 25C moves in cross flow over the elements, which have a diameter of 12
mm, a length of 250 mm, and are maintained at a surface temperature of 350C.

(a) Determine the total heat transfer to the air and the temperature of the air leaving the duct heater.
(b) Determine the pressure drop across the element bank and the fan power requirement.
(c) Compare the average convection coefficient obtained in your analysis with the value for an
isolated (single) element. Explain the difference between the results.
(d) What effect would increasing the longitudinal and transverse pitches to 30 mm have on the exit
temperature of the air, the total heat rate, and the pressure drop?
The Sphere
Flow over a sphere
Boundary layer development is similar to that for flow over a cylinder,
involving transition and separation.

Nu D 2 0.4Re 1/ 2
D 0.06Re 2/3
D Pr /
0.4
s
1/ 4

All properties except s are evaluated at T

Results for the drag coefficient in the limit of very small Reynolds numbers

CD Figure 7.8
Spheres and Packed Beds

The Sphere

Drag coefficients for a smooth circular cylinder in cross flow and for a sphere
Example
7.85 A spherical thermocouple junction 1.0 mm in diameter is inserted in a
combustion chamber to measure the temperature T of the products of combustion.
The hot gases have a velocity of V = 5 m/s.

(a) If the thermocouple is at room temperature, Ti, when it is inserted in the

chamber, estimate the time required for the temperature difference, T- T, to reach
2% of the initial temperature difference, T - Ti. Neglect radiation and conduction
through the leads. Properties of the thermocouple junction are approximated as k =
100 W/mK, c =385 J/kg K, and = 8920 kg/m3, while those of the combustion gases
may be approximated as k =0.05 W/m K, =50106 m2/s, and Pr = 0.69.
(b) If the thermocouple junction has an emissivity of 0.5 and the cooled walls of the
combustor are at Tc = 400 K, what is the steady-state temperature of the
thermocouple junction if the combustion gases
are at 1000 K? Conduction through the lead wires may be neglected.