Development of a new number (the Dincer number) for forced-convection heat transfer in heating and cooling applications

In this article, a new number is developed for the use of forced-convection transient heat transfer to take place during heating and cooling of any solid object. This is called the 'Dincer number' which indicates the effect of the flow velocity of the surrounding fluid on the heating coefficient or cooling coefficient. It indicates that there is a strong relation between the Nusselt number and the Dincer number. For this reason, an application of this number was made and a new Nusselt-Dincer correlation, namely Nu = (2.2893 x 10-(4) Di(1.0047)) was developed for food products exposed to forced-air cooling using the experimental data sets. It is therefore possible to determine the heat transfer coefficient from the Nusselt number after estimating the Dincer number. It can be concluded that the Dincer number brings a new approach to heating and cooling problems. Owing to their simplicity and effectiveness, development of the Nusselt-Dincer correlations will be beneficial to scientists and industries concerned with heating and cooling applications.