The Stanton number arises in the consideration of the geometric similarity of the momentum boundary layer and the thermal boundary layer, where it can be used to express a relationship between the shear force at the wall (due to viscous drag) and the total heat transfer at the wall (due to thermal diffusivity).
Mass transfer
Using the heat-mass transfer analogy, a mass transfer St equivalent can be found using the Sherwood number and Schmidt number in place of the Nusselt number and Prandtl number, respectively.
is defined based on a concentration difference (kg s−1 m−2);
is the velocity of the fluid
Boundary layer flow
The Stanton number is a useful measure of the rate of change of the thermal energy deficit (or excess) in the boundary layer due to heat transfer from a planar surface. If the enthalpy thickness is defined as:[5]
Then the Stanton number is equivalent to
for boundary layer flow over a flat plate with a constant surface temperature and properties.[6]
Correlations using Reynolds-Colburn analogy
Using the Reynolds-Colburn analogy for turbulent flow with a thermal log and viscous sub layer model, the following correlation for turbulent heat transfer for is applicable[7]
where
See also
Strouhal number, an unrelated number that is also often denoted as .
^Crawford, Michael E. (September 2010). "Reynolds number". TEXSTAN. Institut für Thermodynamik der Luft- und Raumfahrt - Universität Stuttgart. Retrieved 2019-08-26.