Numerical study of forced convection near a surface covered with hair

This article reports the results of a numerical study of heat transfer to the air permeating through hair strands covering a flat surface. First, the surface is modeled as isothermal, and second the surface is assumed covered with uniform heat flux. For both models, the nivestigation develops dimensionless charts for calculating the overall heat transfer rate through a flat surface of finite size. The heat transfer rate is the sum of the direct heat transfer from the surface to air flow and the heat conducted away by the hair strands. In each model, the overall Nusselt number emerges as a function of four dimensionless groups. When the surface is sufficiently long, the constant flux-surface Nusselt number is up to 20% greater than the Nusselt number of the corresponding isothermal surface.