A NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF LAMINAR FREE CONVECTION AROUND AN ISOTHERMAL HORIZONTAL CIRCULAR CYLINDER

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Abstract
A numerical analysis is carried out about the thick boundary layer of steady laminar free convection around a horizontal circular cylinder by a finite-difference method. The results for the average heat transfer coefficient for Pr = .0.7, 10, and 100 and 10−4 < Gr < 104are expressed within an accuracy of 1% as follows: where and C(Pr) is a function of Pr. This expression agrees well with experimental data in the range 10−10 < Ra < 107. Also discussed are the principal terms in the equations for the thick boundary layer, the technique of numerical calculation, the radial distribution of velocity components and temperature, and the azimuthal distribution of iocal Nusselt number, and the results are compared with previous theoretical results for the average Nusselt number.