Forced convection in thermally developing turbulent flow of drag-reducing fluids within circular tubes

The Integral Transform Technique is used to solve the turbulent forced convection problem for drag-reducing fluids in the thermal developing and fully developed regions within circular tubes. Turbulent effects are taken into account through an algebraic model corresponding to the minimum-drag asymptotic case for viscoelastic fluids. The well-established Sign-Count Method and the Generalized Integral Transform Technique (GITT) are both employed in order to compute the eigenvalues and the respective eigenfunctions of the associated Sturm–Liouville problem. The Nusselt numbers calculated with the present approach are then compared with those obtained from experimental works available in the literature.