Heat flux from the surface defined by Newtons

law of cooling:
where h is convective heat transfer coefficient. It is
used as a measure of the ability of a flow to
convect energy from viscous walls.
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient
{HTC}
) )( ( ) ( "

= T T x h x q
w

u
y
) ( " x q
w
T
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convect energy from viscous walls.
Generally, for forced convection, h should be
independent of thermal BC only if the
reference temperature is taken as the local
bulk fluid temperature.
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient
{HTC}
Two ways to extract HTC from CFD
1. Flux-based, h=q(T
w
-T
ref
)
Using local bulk temperature as T
ref
:
Most correct, but calculating bulk temperature is not easy for complex
geometry. Even for simple pipe flow, we need to do some coding!
Using fixed reference temperature: Not correct everywhere.
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Using fixed reference temperature: Not correct everywhere.
Using adjacent cell as a reference temperature.
Note: This can be done using Custom Field Function of
(Total Heat Surface Heat Flux - Radiation Heat Flux)/
(Wall Temperature (Outer Surface) - Static Temperature)
and plotting without node values.
This requires running the energy equation.
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient
{HTC}
2. Based on wall functions
This requires only to run turbulence equations.
It would be equivalent to using the adjacent cell as reference
temperature in the flux-based. It should give exactly the same h
no matter what wall functions you use!
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( )
( )
( ) ( )
*
2
1
4
1
2
1
4
1
) /( "
ln
1
Pr
Pr
T
k C c
T T q h
y y P Ey
y y y
q
k C c T T
T
P p
P w
T t
T
P p P w

= =

>
(

+
<
=

4
1
2
1
Pr
Pr
1
Pr
Pr
4
sin
4
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
t
t
A
P

Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient

{HTC}
Generally, for accurate h, we want T
P
to be close to the bulk
temperature. This can be achieved only if y
+
is large. This is the
best we can do for a complicated geometry.
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P
T
bulk
T
w
T
P
T
bulk
T
w
T
Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient
{HTC}
The Fluent field variable, Surface Heat Transfer Coe.,
under Wall Fluxes, is:
h=q
total
(T
w
-T
ref
)
q
total
=q
rad
+q
convection
T is taken from Report Reference values.
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T
ref
is taken from Report Reference values.
It is an effective HTC.
The wall function based heat transfer coefficient is also
listed under Wall Fluxes.