Laminar Forced Convective Heat Transfer Inside a Locally Heated Tube

Forced convective heat transfer to fully developed laminar flow inside a tube which is uniformly heated along a finite length from the outer surface is numerically analysed as a conjugated problem. The four prescribable dimensionless parameters in this analysis are: heated length to inner diameter ratio L*, outer to inner diameter ratio R_o, wall to fluid conductivity ratio Λ, and Peclet number P_e. Effects of the parameters on the distributions of heat flux and wall temperature at the inner surface of the tube, the mixing-cup temperature of fluid and the local Nusselt number are graphically demonstrated. The region affected by axial heat conduction in the wall is discussed with respect to the heat flux distribution and the length of the region is expressed by a function of Λ, R_o and P_e.