Integrity of Newton’s cooling law based on thermal convection theory of heat transfer and entropy transfer

Although thermal convection is omnipresent in nature and technology and serves important purposes in various energy transport systems, whether convection can be viewed as an independent heat transfer means has long been argued The constant coefficient in the original version or convective heat transfer coefficient defined in the modern version of Newton’s cooling law quantifies the ratio of the surface heat flux to the temperature difference between a body surface and an adjacent fluid. However, none of the consistent analytical expressions for these two coefficients are present in Newton’s cooling law. The inherently complex relationship between these pending coefficients and convective heat flux vectors makes revealing the convective mechanism extremely difficult. Theoretical determination of these coefficients would bring new insights to thermal convection and direct applications to thermal management. Here we theoretically show consistent analytical expressions for the constant and convective heat transfer coefficients for various flows to make Newton’s cooling law a complete scientific law. For this purpose, a three-dimensional (3D) energy transfer theory of thermal convection is developed, and the convective heat flux vector, entropy flux vector and entropy generation rate inside the system are derived for both single-phase and phase-change flows. By recasting a control volume system into an equivalent control mass system and employing the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the fundamental advective heat transfer mode characterized by temperature differences and entropy changes is demonstrated. The physical implications underlying the 3D convective formulae are elucidated. Comparisons of the analytical results with laminar experiments and turbulent flow measurement benchmark data validate our theoretical findings. Our 3D heat and entropy transfer theory will broaden the research area of thermal convection processes and open up a new arena for the design and thermal management of convective heat transfer in single-phase and phase-change flows.