Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer

Chapter 9

Forced Convection

9.1 Introduction

In the previous chapters, we studied about conduction heat transfer, where heat transfer was a molecular phenomenon and was considered mainly in solids; convection was mentioned only in passing and was considered only as a boundary condition while analysing conduction heat transfer.

In convection heat transfer, there is a flow of fluid associated with heat transfer and the energy transfer is mainly due to bulk motion of the fluid. When the flow of fluid is caused by an external agency such as a fan or pump or due to atmospheric disturbances, the resulting heat transfer is known as ‘Forced convection heat transfer’; when the flow of fluid is due to density differences caused by temperature differences, ...