Heat Transfer in the Turbulent Incompressible Boundary Layer

Heat-transfer rates and temperature profiles for the turbulent incompressible flow of air over a flat plate with a stepwise temperature distribution (unheated starting length) were measured for a variety of step positions at Reynolds numbers up to 3.5 x 10(exp 6). Comparison of the data with existing heat-transfer analyses indicates that an improved analysis is needed. An integral analysis is made that agrees very well with the data and allows a simple correction for the unheated starting length. In addition, a differential analysis is made that allows prediction of the temperature profiles from the velocity profiles, and good agreement with experimental profiles is obtained.