Teaching module for laminar and turbulent forced convection on a flat plate

✍ Scribed by Robert J. Ribando; Kevin A. Coyne; Gerald W. O'Leary

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 461 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1061-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0542(1998)6:2<115::aid-cae7>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

This article describes a PC-based teaching module for the classical problem of forced convection over a heated flat plate. The transformed boundary layer equations for an incompressible fluid are solved using a finite-difference numerical procedure on a grid that grows along with the boundary layer. Simple transition and mixing length turbulence models allow the algorithm to be used across a wide range of Reynolds numbers. The program returns a colored contour plot of the thermal boundary layer on the screen and shows the edge of the velocity boundary layer. The effects of the Reynolds number and Prandtl numbers are dramatically demonstrated. The user can use a slider mechanism to take local measurements of the plate temperature and surface temperature gradient, and from these data develop local and overall ''virtual'' convection correlations.