Simplified method for estimating heat transfer coefficients: constant wall temperature case

Abstract

This work completes a previous study (Cruz et al., in J Heat Transf 134:091703, 2012) by evaluating the performance of the simplified method proposed therein for calculating the Nusselt number for laminar flow of nonNewtonian fluids in pipes with constant wall temperature. The methodology was tested using the Herschel-Bulkley, Bingham, Casson and Carreau-Yasuda generalized Newtonian models, and also the simplified form of the PhanThien-Tanner viscoelastic model. The error of the approximate methodology is below 3 %, except for yield stress fluids, for which the maximum error increases to 7.4 % for the cases analyzed, which cover a wide range of shear viscosity curves. An explicit expression of Nusselt number for Casson fluids is also presented.