If the main aim of the project is the heat transfer between two or more fluids, the type of materials that were used in the heat exchanger structure, can affect the heat transfer process.

Thank you very much Hatef and Andreas for your answer! Andreas respond is more my case!

Your question is not clear.  What is this material you are talking about? The film heat transfer coefficient of a fluid does not depend upon the material of the containing structure (eg heat exchanger tube, tank wall, etc).  However the over heat transfer coefficient between the fluid and the source of destination of the heat does depend on the properties of the materials through which the heat must travel.

If you have local effects, that can be affected by the material rugsity, you clearly have an effect...

Also verify that the material thermal resistance is small compared the inverse of the fluid heat transfer coefficients.

Good luck !

The heat transfer between a surface and a fluid depends on the temperature difference between them and solely in the properties of the fluid normally aggregated in Dimensionless numbers such as Reynolds and Prandtl numbers if the flow of the fluid is created by mechanical means (pump, fan, blower etc.) hence known as Forced Convection, or the Grashof and Prandtl numbers if the flow is the result of buoyancy forces hence known as Natural or Free Convection. The fluid properties making up or involved in the dimensionless numbers are normally evaluated at a film temperature usually the average of the fluid and surface temperatures. The heat transfer coefficient will be involved with the thermal conductivity of the fluid and a characteristic dimension of the surface (flat plate length, cylinder diameter etc.) in another dimensionless parameter known as the Nusselt number. Here we may have a source of confusion with another dimensionless parameter which uses the same symbols as the Nusselt number except that the conductivity property is not of the fluid but of the solid. This dimensionless number is known as the Biot number however it is only used during transient heat transfer problems seeking to establish temperature distribution below the surface inside the solid.

Thank You very much for your comments! My problem is comparison of heat accumulation by wood and concrete wall in buildings. On one way the heat capacity of concrete is higher but on the other it seems to me that wood properties are better for daily accumulation of heat. I would like to investigate this issue. I have got tip that it could be caused by heat exchange between indoor and wall surface that can be better in the case of wood.

The surface finish of the material affects the convection and radiation heat transfer coefficients and the pressure drop. Pressure drop is often a limiting factor particularly for natural convection. However I would think the surface has a small effect compared to the convection conditions such as wind on the outside and natural convection or fans on the inside etc. We have studied heat transfer into and out of building structures.  An unexpected key issue is the angle of the material and the direction of heat transfer. It is easy to heat a ceiling with hot air but difficult to remove that heat with cold air and vice versa with the floor. Walls are intermediate in being less easy to heat but more easy to cool. The daily accumulation and removal of heat depends on the unsteady state heat transfer of heat into and out of the structure which depends on heat capacity and thermal conductivity. This is a classic heat transfer problem of heating a slab from one edge while cooling from the other. The radiation heat transfer can be very significant for sun exposed walls and here it is possible to change the coefficient of adsorption by use of coatings.  It really depends on what you want to accomplish. For stabilizing day night internal temperatures you need a "heat residence time" as the pulse of heat from the day temperatures moves through the wall.  Much of these problems can be helped by artificially changing the heat transfer coefficients.  For example you can have forced convection on the internal wall when you want heat at night but turn it off during the day when you do not want heat. A simple way to do this is to build an additional wall with an air gap in between which serves as insulation when stagnant but can remove heat when air is moved in the gap. We did find that the problem with concrete is getting the heat in and out and so adopted the forced convection approach.

Thermal conductivity of concrete varies depending on density.Thermal Conductivity - k - W/(m.K)

Concrete, lightweight 0.1 - 0.3

Concrete, medium 0.4 - 0.7

Concrete, dense 1.0 - 1.8

Wood is more constant but usually less than concrete

Wood across the grain, white pine 0.12

Wood across the grain, yellow pine, timber 0.147

Wood, oak 0.17

Heat transfer coeficiente depends on the kind of fluid involved. Each fluid has its own thermal properties, which can be found in published tables and books.

Thermal conductivity of a given material that receives thermal energy by means of some fluid affects the heat transfer process, too.

Practically does not depend

The problem is not clear if you use the relation Nu=f(Re,Pr), since the problem only concern with fluid flow, and the result is uniform/average Nusselt number. However, it will be transparent if you take/solve the convection equation with BVP, KdT/dx=h(T - Tinf), you will get the distributed Nu, and the role of K is obvious. Try to read the book by Oosthuizen & Naylor for further details

I have conducted many experiments on the subject. It is established that - independent.

I think it is independant if wall temperature is really constant. But really the solid is heated or cooled somehow and the result of such heating/cooling would be different for different materials. So, if You want to explore this difference - you need to calculate the whole system, including both heat flows for the solid: heat flow between solid and fluid and another flow, at the opposite side of the solid. 

In my opinion it is only dependent as the roughness of the solid material might be different.

As the surface of Glass is very smooth in comparison with that of Concrete you may find some difference.  Heat transfer coefficient during boiling and condensation also shall differ.  

Dr.S.Ravindran

It does not depends on kind of material but it depends on surface quality of surface which alter the pressure and hence velocity of fluid in case of confined flow.

It is well known that the surface finish may affect the heat transfer.  

When water in glass bowl is heated in a microwave oven, water may get slightly super heated - without boiling.  If a person touches the bowl, water in it may boil and water may over flow and hurt the persons hand.   

Dr.S.Ravindran

Convective heat transfer coefficient in heat exchanger does not related to the solid (pipe) material. However, if the flow is turbulent, the roughness of the wall comes to the picture. Also, for micro tubes, the conjugate effect may become important. In other words, the heat conduction through the tube..

If you are interested in short gusts, then it should not, but for longer exposure, the heat capacity and conductivity of the sold should be considered. Wallpaper and paint can have significant influence  over the process- thermal insulation film and surface finish hence effective surface.

You may refer to papers by M.M.Shah.  He has analysed data of several materials and fluid combinations.  many of his papers are related to boiling and condensation.  You shall find relationship of surface - fluid for forced flow situations also.   

In single-phase flow the tube material will not affect the heat transfer coefficient,but it is well established that the tube surface roughness mighthave an impact. The impact of surface roughness on heat transfer (in turbulent flows) is generally correlated as a function of the friction factor for a rough surface relative to the friction factor of a smooth surface, see e.g. the book by Kays/Crawford: Convective heat and mass transfer,McGraw-Hill.

In phase-change heat transfer the situation becomes more complex:

In boiling, surface roughness plays an important role in activating potential vapor cavities, and e.g. Gorenflo has correlated the increase in heat transfer coefficient due to surface roughness. Moreover, the wetting properties are dependent on the fluid and surface material used, which may also influence bubble growth and subsequently the heat transfer coefficient. Less work is available on this, however. Also, the local heat transfer coefficient in nucleate boiling is influenced by the thermal conductivity (and heat capacity) of the wall material (governing the heat flow to the nucleation sites),e.g. titanium may behave differently than copper, since copper will allow faster reheating of a spot recently vacated by a vapor bubble. This may lead to fewer active nucleation sites (negative), but higher bubble departure frequencies (positive).

In condensation situations, surface roughness may influence the film thiskness, affecting turbulence and heat transfer. In addition,wetting properties (i.e. contact angle) may - in extreme cases - change the condensation mode from film to droplet condensation.

Le matériel n'intervient pas, seule la rugosité de surface peut avoir de l'importance.

Alain Degiovanni, 

Could not understand the communications in your regional language.  Kindly communicate in English.  

Dr.S.Ravindran

Sorry to up this thread again.. I got similar question and want to confirm it with examples.  For single phase cooler, different tube material (example copper and aluminium) being used for closed loop cooling tower. Fluid inside tube is water being cooled from 45C to 35C. Outside the tube is water and air at wet bulb temperature 27C. Can someone suggest what is the decent overall heat transfer coefficient for these two material? Copper supposed to have a higher heat capacity but whether have significant effect on this case. Thank you.  

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Overall_Heat_Transfer_Coefficient_on_Single_Phase_Cooler