The Meaning and Significance of Heat

Transfer Coefficient

Alan Mueller, Chief Technology Officer
I know the meaning of HTC!
Why should I waste my time listening to your presentation?

What is the difference between the STAR-CCM+ Field Functions?
Heat Transfer Coefficient
Local Heat Transfer Coefficient
Virtual Heat Transfer Coefficient
Specified Y+ Heat Transfer Coefficient


The Meaning of Heat Transfer Coefficient
2
HTC expresses a linear relation between the heat flux at the
wall and the difference in a reference temperature and the
wall temperature




The heat flux is, in general, some very complicated function
The linear relation is only an approximation
Often referred to as Newtons law of cooling
HTC is not the whole picture
3
( )
w ref w
q h T T =
OK, I know the meaning of heat flux and wall temperature, what is
reference temperature?

Well duh!, its simply the temperature that satisfies



In textbooks often it is some far-field temperature, or some inlet temperature
For boiling heat often it is the boiling saturation temperature
Heat transfer coefficient and reference temperature come in pairs
Can not define one without the other
Only wall heat flux and wall temperature are unambiguous

The meaning of Reference Temperature
w
ref w
q
T T
h
= +
w
ref w
q
h
T T
=

Some of the confusion is that literature focuses on HTC but little on its
relationship to the Tref
Physical and Computational Aspects of Heat Transfer, Cebeci & Bradshaw,
Springer-Verlag, 1991
Developing Laminar Duct Flow

Tref is it important
( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( )
w
u
w m
q x D h x D
N x
k T x T x k
= =

???? ( )
( )
( , ) ,
( , )
A
m
A
u x r T x r dA
T x
u x r dA

Heat flux in Boundary Layer

All the physics is in

Conduction Heat Flux in a Boundary Layer
6
( )
( )
,
,
, ,
f p f
f p f
w ref f
f w
c u c u T T
q h T T
T
T y

+

=
+
+
= =
( )
( )
( )
( )
,
,
Pr Pr / Pr ,
Pr ,
T T T trans
T trans
u y P y y
T y
y y y
+ + + +
+ +
+ + +

+ >

=

and T u

+
heat transfer coefficient
user specifies




local heat transfer coefficient & local heat transfer
reference temperature
local law of wall
near wall cell temperature

HTC Field Functions in STAR-CCM+
7
( )
ref w
w
q
h
T T
=

ref
T
h
ref
T
virtual local heat transfer coefficient
local law of wall




evaluated at near wall cell
need not solve energy transport
mute about the reference temperature




HTC Field Functions in STAR-CCM+
8
h
specified y+ heat transfer coefficient & specified y+ heat
transfer reference temperature
user specifies y+ but uses properties at the cell adjacent to the wall





HTC Field Functions in STAR-CCM+
9
( )
, c p c
c u
h
T y

+ +
=
w
ref w
q
T T
h
= +
ref w
y h T T
+

Description Value
Pipe diameter (cm) 1
Pipe length (cm) 25
Reynolds number 50,000
Inlet temperature 300 K
Uniform heat flux at the walls 1E6 W/m2
Density 1000 kg/m3
Specific heat 4200 J /kg-C
Dynamic viscosity 0.001 Pa-s
Thermal conductivity 0.6 W/m-K
Laminar Pr number 7.0
Turbulent Pr number 0.9
Pipe flow example specified q
w
=1e6 W/m
2
10
Wall Treatment
All Y+
All Y+
% Error
High Y+
High Y+
% Error
Turbulence Model
RKE
2-layer
RKE
Wall Temperature 359.39 359.22
Friction velocity u_tau 0.246 0.2465
Local HTC 19150 19202
Local HT Ref Temp 307.17 307.13
Heat Flux 1000013 0.0 1000232 0.0
HTC 16838 16888
Reference Temp for HTC 300 300
Heat Flux 1000009 0.0 1000107 0.0
Specified Y+ HTC 19154 19207
Specified Y+ HT Ref Temp 307.18 307.15
Specified Y+ 150 150
Heat Flux 99963 0.0 1000108 0.0
Virtual Local HTC 19150 19201
Reference Temp for
Virtual Local HTC
300 300
Heat Flux 1137318 13.7 1137083 13.7
Dittus Boelter 18000 18000
High y
+
mesh (near-wall cell y
+
= 150)
11
Wall Treatment
All Y+
All Y+
%
Error
High
Y+
High
Y+%
Error
Low Y+
Low Y+
% Error
Turbulence Model
RKE
2-layer
RKE
SKE Low
Re
Wall Temperature 357.17 327.95 353.37
Friction velocity u_tau 0.239 0.314 0.258
Local HTC 89693 83570 85825
Local HT Ref Temp 346.0 316.0 341.7
Heat Flux 1001870 0.2 998662 -0.2 100415 -0.4
HTC 17492 35760 18739
Reference Temp for HTC 300 300 300
Heat Flux 1000018 0.0 999492 0.0 100098 -0.1
Specified Y+ HTC 18612 24460 NA
Specified Y+ HT Ref Temp 303.44 287.1 NA
Specified Y+ 150 150 NA
Heat Flux 1000023 0.0 999191 0.1 NA
Virtual Local HTC 89693 83570 NA
Reference Temp for
Virtual Local HTC
300 300 NA
Heat Flux 5127749 -412.77 2335781 -133.6 NA
Dittus Boelter 18000 18000 18000
low y
+
mesh (near-wall cell y
+
= 2)
Virtual heat transfer coefficient can be misleading
Not paired to any Reference Temperature
May not be near textbook HTC

Best Practice: Specified y+ heat transfer coefficient
For a good guess of y+ then all is consistent with textbook
Not as sensitive to choice of reference temperature
Lessons Learned
13
Heat transfer coefficient is not safe
Poor choice of reference temperature can lead to negative HTC
Difficult to apply when temperature changes as the fluid cools down
or heats up down the axis of the pipe.
Lessons Learned
14
Local heat transfer coefficient
Dangerous if not used with the local heat transfer reference
temperature
For low Re meshes will give values not anywhere near textbook
values.
Specified Y+ HTC is good compromise
Likely the best option for cycle averaging

Lessons learned
15
w
ref w
q
T T
h
= +
At least for this constant property example
Wall treatment models give reasonable surface temperatures when
used properly
The default all y+ is the best for all prism layer meshes size range
Lessons Learned
16
Couple to Abaqus
Tw Abaqus => STAR-CCM+
Option 1: (Best Practice)
HTC, Tref STAR-CCM+ => Abaqus, or
Option 2:
Heat flux STAR-CCM+ => Abaqus
Option 3:
Heat flux Abaqus => STAR-CCM+
Tw STAR-CCM+ => Abaqus




Heat Transfer in Explicit Coupled Problems
17
Unstablebecauseheatresistanceinfluid
ishigherthaninsolid
BestPractice:InitialTwissameinbothcodes
Heat Transfer in a Exhaust Manifold
18
HTC= Local Heat Transfer Coefficient
19
HeatFlux,t=10s HTC,Treft=10s
HTC,Treft=100s
HeatFlux,t=100s
HTC,TrefSteady
HeatfluxSteady Unstable!!!
HTC Specified Y+ Heat transfer Coefficient
20
HTC,Tref,y+=200t=100s
HTC,Tref,y+=1e6t=100s
Y+=1e6, and still very accurate!??
21
HTC,Tref,y+=1e6t=10s
Steady-state Solution in about 2 iterations
HTC,Tref,y+=2000
Linear form






Heat flux is linear expansion about wall temp

Exchanging heat flux only is same as
Heat Applied in Abaqus
( )
( ) ( )

( )
1
1 1
1 1
1 n n n
w ref
n n n n n n n
w w ref w w
n n n n n
w w w w
n
w
dq
w
dT
w
q h T
q h T T h T T
q q h T
T
T
+
+ +
+
+
+
=
= +
= +

0
n
h =
HeatTransferCoefficientismorenumerical
innatureitstabilizesthesolution
Whatmustbeaccurateistheheatflux!
ReferenceTemperaturedoesnotappear!
Can be used to give best estimate of the heat at the end of
the time step


The actual physics of the choice of HTC using boundary layer
theory is not as important as getting the heat flux correct
HTC is not important at all if time step is small


Specified Y+ HTC in Coupled Simulations
24
( )
1 1 n n n n n
w w w w
q q h T T
+ +
= +
HTC and Reference Temp come in pairs
HTC choices may not be satisfactory if not paired to the proper
Reference Temperature
Specified Y+ HTC recommended
Coupling to other codes
Solid passes wall temperature
Fluid passes HTC and Reference Temperature such that



Initial Wall temperatures same in both codes

Conclusions
w
ref w
q
T T
h
= +