NASA NTRS1959
Over 600 measured heat-transfer coefficients in the transition from slip to free-molecule flow have been correlated by using the Nusselt number Nu as a function of the Knudsen Kn and Reynolds Re (or Mach M) numbers. The experimental range for these heat-transfer data from transverse cylinders in air corresponds to the following dimensionless groups: M, 0.10 to 0.90; Re, 0.03 to 11.5; Kn, 0.10 to 5.0. The total air temperature T(sub t) was maintained constant at 80 F, but wire temperature was Varied from 150 to 580 F. At Kn=0.10, Nu extrapolates smoothly into slip-flow empirical curves that show Nu as a function of Re and M or Kn. The correlation gradually changes from the square root of Re(sub t) dependence characteristic of continuum flow to first-power Re dependence as Kn increases (decreasing Re). At the experimental limit Kn ft 5.0, the Nu data correlate with a mean fractional error of 413 percent by the prediction of free-molecule-flow theory. In comparing experimental results with theory, an accommodation coefficient of 0.57+/-0.07 was inferred from the heat-transfer data, which were obtained with etched tungsten wire in air. The wire recovery temperature T(sub e) was measured and compared with existing data and theory in terms of a ratio eta(equivalent to T(sub e)/T(sub t). The results can be divided into three groups by Kn criteria: For Kn less than 2.01, eta is independent of Kn, and eta decreases from 1.0 to 0.97 as M increases from 0 to 0.90; for 2.0 less than Kn less than 5.0, eta is a function of both Kn and M in this transition region to fully developed free-molecule flow; and for Kn greater than 5.0, eta predicted by free-molecule-flow theory is observed and increases from 1.0 to 1.08 as M increases from 0 to 0.90, again independent of Kn. Therefore, these T(sub e) data provide a guide to the boundary of fully developed free-molecule flow, which is.inferred from this research to exist for Kn greater than 5.0. This boundary criterion is substantiated by other published data on T(sub e) at supersonic speeds.