Comparison of Data Processing Techniques for Convective Heat Transfer Measurements in a Transient Transonic Hot Wind Tunnel

The present study compares two data processing techniques of calculating convective heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for experiments carried out at the Virginia Tech transonic wind tunnel facility. The discussion starts from the physical models and basic assumptions of the two methods denoted as Curve Fitting and Linear Regression, and is followed by application of both methods with the same set of experimental data for a comparative analysis. The linear regression method is found to be superior to the curve fitting method in eliminating the errors caused due to the transient starting up effect of the hot blow down.