A Historical Misperception on Calculating the Average Convection Coefficient in Tubes With Constant Wall Heat Flux

Abstract

The historical approach to averaging the convection coefficient in tubes of constant wall heat flux leads to quantitative errors in short tubes as high as 12.5% for convection into fully developed flows and 33.3% for convection into hydrodynamically developing flows. This mistake can be found in teaching texts and monographs on heat transfer, as well as in major handbooks. Using the correctly defined relationship between local and average convection coefficients, eight new correlations are presented for fully developed and developing flows in round tubes and between parallel plates for the constant wall heat flux condition. These new correlations are within 2% of exact solutions for fully developed flows and within 6% of first principle calculations for hydrodynamically developing flows.