Effect of the fluid movement on heat exchange : what is necessary to keep in mind

Here is, as a conclusion, the summary of all that was seen and of what is to be kept in mind to understand convection. The convection thermal resistance R_cv is given by :

To reduce this, it is necessary to have the largest effective heat-transferring surface area S and the highest possible convective transfer coefficient h, therefore this means to look for a flow having :

• a high fluid's thermal conductivity
• a high flow rate ...
• ... even better a more turbulent flow
• a high fluid's density and specific heat ( in fact their product )

Recall of the physical properties of water and air :

In the light of that, which is the most interesting fluid ?

Water !

For this reason the interest in watercooling ;)