Convective heat transfer near one-dimensional and two-dimensional wall temperature steps

Steady-state experiments with one-dimensional and two-dimensional calorimeters were used to study the convective heat transfer near sharp steps in wall temperature in a turbulent boundary layer. Data acquired under low and high freestream turbulence conditions indicated that spanwise turbulent diffusion is not a significant heat transport mechanism for a two-dimensional temperature step. The one-dimensional calorimeter heat transfer data were predicted within +/-5 percent using the STAN7 boundary layer code for situations with an abrupt wall temperature step. The conventional correlation with an unheated starting length correction, in contrast, greatly under-predicts the heat transfer for the same experimental cases. A new correlation was developed that is in good agreement with near and far-field semi-analytical solutions and predicts the calorimeter heat transfer data to within +/-2 percent for temperature step boundary condition cases.