Horizontal Cylinder in Natural Convection — Isothermal
Calculates the average convective heat transfer coefficient and total heat rate from a long, isothermal horizontal cylinder in a quiescent fluid. The Churchill–Chu single-cylinder correlation spans the full laminar-to-turbulent range. The ends of the cylinder are treated as adiabatic, so only the lateral surface participates.
Rayleigh Number
Properties are evaluated at the film temperature Tf=(Ts+T∞)/2, with the diameter as the characteristic length:
RaD=ν2gβ(Ts−T∞)D3PrNusselt Number (Churchill–Chu)
Nu={0.60+[1+(0.559/Pr)9/16]8/270.387RaD1/6}2valid for 10−5≤RaD≤1012.
Heat Transfer Coefficient and Heat Rate
h=DNu⋅k,Q=h(πDL)(Ts−T∞)References
- Churchill, S. W. and Chu, H. H. S., Correlating Equations for Laminar and Turbulent Free Convection from a Horizontal Cylinder, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 18, 1049, 1975.
- Incropera, F. P. and DeWitt, D. P., Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, eq. 9.34.