Need for empirical correlation
 

Dear all,

I have a question of basic understanding of CFD.

When we do heat transfer analysis with CFD we do not use any empirical correlation to calculate the heat transfer coefficient.

Can anyone explain in rigorous terms why we do not need one?

I am very much interested in knowing the answer to that question.

Regards

Hey,

There are lots of empirical correlations for heat transfer. I have used some of them for comparison of Nusselt number in a bouyancy driven cavity obtained from my CFD code.

There many articles regarding that issue. One famous but old one is a paper by Catton regarding natural heat transfer at different conditions which is I think for 1978.

You can also refer to Heat Transfer book by Frank Incropera chapter of "natural convection".