Heat transfer to non‐Newtonian fluids in transitional and turbulent flow

Turbulent and transitional flow heat transfer correlations for non‐Newtonian fluids are presented. By means of an extension of the Reichardt‐Metzner‐Friend correlation to nonisothermal flow, and a new definition of Prandtl number to account for deviations from Newtonian behavior, turbulent flow data are correlated to a standard deviation of 14.8%. By means of a normalizing procedure, data for the complex case of transitional flow heat transfer to non‐Newtonian fluids are correlated to a standard deviation of 17.7%. At the transition region boundaries, the correlation is consistent with laminar and turbulent flow correlations. A basic similarity in the Newtonian and non‐Newtonian heat transfer mechanisms is suggested.