The heat transfer characteristics of rolling wheel and the characteristic length determining them

The convective heat transfer characteristics on the surface of a rolling wheel are investigated using the naphthalene sublimation technique. Five sizes of rolling wheel are selected in the experiments. The local and average Nusselt numbers are obtained. The results reveal that if the wheel radius is used as the characteristic length, the relationship between Nusselt number and Reynolds number is dependent on the wheel radius. This indicates that the wheel radius is not the characteristic length to determine the dimensionless convective heat transfer characteristics of the rolling wheel. Thus, a newly defined characteristic length is provided. For different radii of the wheel, the relationships between Nusselt number and Reynolds number based on this length collapse into one reasonable correlation. The correlation not only enriches the insight of convective heat transfer on rolling wheel but also extends the applicability of the present experimental data.