A numerical study of the steady forced convection heat transfer from an unconfined circular cylinder

Forced convection heat transfer from an unconfined circular cylinder in the steady cross-flow regime has been studied using a finite volume method (FVM) implemented on a Cartesian grid system in the range as 10 ≤ Re ≤ 45 and 0.7 ≤ Pr ≤ 400. The numerical results are used to develop simple correlations for Nusselt number as a function of the pertinent dimensionless variables. In addition to average Nusselt number, the effects of Re, Pr and thermal boundary conditions on the temperature field near the cylinder and on the local Nusselt number distributions have also been presented to provide further physical insights into the nature of the flow. The rate of heat transfer increases with an increase in the Reynolds and/or Prandtl numbers. The uniform heat flux condition always shows higher value of heat transfer coefficient than the constant wall temperature at the surface of the cylinder for the same Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. The maximum difference between the two values is around 15–20%.