Laminar natural-convection of a fluid in the supercritical region

Scope and Method of Study: A practical method for solving the problem of natural:-convection in the supercritical region where the physical properties are highly variable has been developed. The fluid chosen is Freon 114. Analytical methods for obtaining the necessary thermo dynamic and transport properties are also presented. The solution of the reduced differential equations for natural-convection along a vertical flat plate using the iterative method of Newton-Raphson is demonstrated. Four cases of natural-convection in the supercritical region were solved for the following fluid states:P = 540000 psia; Tw - T(infinity) = 5°FCase (1): Tw = 320.00°FCase (2): Tw = 315.00°FCase (3): Tw = 310.00°FCase (4): Tw = 305.00°F.Findings and Conclusions: The analytical procedure presented provides a practical method for solving the problem of natural-convection in the supercritical region for laminar flowo For the particular cases considered it was estimated that the maximum coefficient of heat transfer occurs at a wall temperature near the maximum Prandtl number