Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2006
A numerical solution is presented for predicting the flow and heat transfer due to free convection in the entry region of a cooled vertical pipe, open at both ends. Following Lighthill (1953) the Kármán-Pohlhausen method is used in this analysis. Velocity and temperature profiles are assumed satisfying the physical boundary conditions, and the integrated forms of the equations of motion and the equations themselves at the axis and the walls of the pipe are used to calculate the various parameters involved in the profiles assumed. Two cases of constant wall temperature and linearly decreasing temperature with height were considered. Cooling decelerates the fluid in the boundary layer that forms at the wall and the fluid in the core is accelerated by virtue of continuity. As cooling progresses, at Rayleigh number O(103) the fluid in the boundary layer starts reversing at first and then assumes progressively increasing velocities. Graphs are presented for the development of the predicted velocity and temperature profiles and the other parameters involved, for a situation when the boundary layer fills the whole pipe.