Computation of the nusselt number asymptotes for laminar forced convectionflows in internally finned tubes

The central goal of this paper is to report a simple approximate way for th e prediction of the two asymptotes for the local Nusselt number in laminar forced convection flows inside internal longitudinal finned tubes. The comp utational attributes of the Method Of Lines, (MOL) are propitious for the d etermination of asymptotic temperature solutions and corresponding heat tra nsfer rates tone for z --> 0 and the other for z --> infinity). The two loc al Nusselt number sub-distributions, namely Nu(z --> 0) and Nu(z --> infini ty) blend themselves into an approximate Nusselt number distribution that c overs the entire z-domain in a natural way. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.