Laminar Free Convection from a Horizontal Cylinder with Uniform Cross Section of Arbitrary Shape

The heat transfer problem of two dimensional steady state free convection from a horizontal cylinder with cross section of arbitrary shape is theoretically analized for both cases of uniform surface temperature and uniform surface heat flux. As examples the heat transfers from a circular cylinder, a modified triangular prism and a modified quarangular prism are calculated, and to check the results, experiments have been carried out in water. The experimental values of the mean heat transfer coefficient are about 10∼30 percent higher than the analytical values.