Forced convection

Summary

Forced convection is convective heat transfer in which an outside agent moves the fluid. The agent may be a pump, a fan, a moving body or the wind. Because the flow is imposed, it is usually much stronger than buoyant flow, and it gives much higher heat transfer rates. Its heat transfer is described by the Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds number and the Prandtl number. Car radiators, heat exchangers and cooling fans all rely on it.