Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol.25, No.7, 23-33, 2004
Forced convection heat transfer to power-law non-Newtonian fluids inside triangular ducts
A hybrid analytical-numerical approach based on the Generalized Integral Transform Technique is employed to simulate the laminar forced convection (hydrodynamically fully developed and thermally developing laminar flow) of power-law non-Newtonian fluids inside ducts with arbitrary shaped cross-sections. The analysis is illustrated through consideration of both right angularly and isosceles triangular ducts subjected to constant wall temperature as thermal boundary condition. Reference results for quantities of practical interest such as dimensionless average temperature and Nusselt numbers within the thermal entry region were produced for different values of power-law index and apex angles. Finally, critical comparisons are performed with results available in the literature for direct numerical and approximate approaches.