Laminar Convective Heat Transfer of a Bingham Plastic in a Circular Pipe With Uniform Wall Heat Flux: The Graetz Problem Extended

Abstract

Thermally developing laminar flow of a Bingham plastic in a circular pipe with uniform wall heat flux has been studied analytically. Expressions for the fully developed temperature and Nusselt number are presented in terms of the yield stress, Peclet number, and Brinkman number. The solution to the Graetz problem has been obtained by using the method of separation of variables, where the resulting eigenvalue problem is solved approximately by using the method of weighted residuals. The effects of the yield stress, Peclet, and Brinkman numbers on the Nusselt number are discussed. In particular, it is shown that the heat transfer characteristics in the entrance region are significantly affected by the yield stress with the inclusion of viscous dissipation.