Local Spatial Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient: Toward Optimized Design of Heat Transfer Systems
Qiuwang Wang
Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
ABSTRACT
The optimal design of heat transfer systems directly determines the energy utilization efficiency of industrial processes and plays a critical role in advancing energy conservation, emission reduction, and thermal energy storage technologies. Conventional heat transfer equipment is typically designed using lumped parameter methods, relying on averaged convective heat transfer coefficients for performance evaluation. However, such approaches are unable to capture the inherent spatial nonuniformity of local convective heat transfer, often resulting in excessive design margins that limit improvements in system performance and economic efficiency. From the perspective of energy streamtubes, the present study traces the pathways of energy flow within the domain and introduces a local spatial convective heat transfer coefficient referenced to the inlet temperature. A unified characterization framework for local heat transfer in single phase forced convection, applicable to both internal and external flows, is established. By integrating the spatial distribution of the local convective heat transfer coefficient with the energy flow trajectories defined by energy streamtubes, and through analyses based on local specific thermal resistance and equivalent thermal resistivity, regions of deficient heat transfer can be accurately identified. On this basis, flow channel structural parameters are optimized and local flow conditions are regulated, leading to enhanced heat transfer performance. The proposed method provides a new theoretical perspective and analytical framework for the refined design and performance enhancement of industrial heat transfer equipment and systems.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Dr. Qiuwang Wang, Professor of School of Energy & Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. His research interests include heat transfer enhancement and energy saving, energy storage fundamental and technology, heat transfer under extreme conditions, heat transfer in porous media, prediction and optimization of thermal and fluid problems. He is a Fellow of both ASME and ASTFE, a China Delegate of Assembly for International Heat Transfer Conference (AIHTC), an executive member of Scientific Council of International Centre for Heat & Mass Transfer (ICHMT). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Energy Storage and Saving, the Associate Editors of International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Heat Transfer Engineering, and Editorial Board Members for several international journals such as Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Energy Conversion and Management, Energy, Applied Thermal Engineering, etc. He is the founding chair of two international conferences: International Workshop on Heat Transfer Advances for Energy Conservation and Pollution Control (IWHT, since 2011) and the International Conference on Energy Storage and Saving (ICENSS, since 2022). He has also delivered more than 50 Plenary/Keynote lectures in international conferences.
