The effect of length scale in free-stream turbulence is considered for heat transfer in laminar boundary layers. A model is proposed that accounts for an “effective” intensity of turbulence based on a dominant frequency for a laminar boundary layer. Assuming a standard turbulence spectral distribution, a new turbulence parameter that accounts for both turbulence level and length scale is obtained and used to correlate heat transfer data for laminar stagnation flows. The result indicates that the heat transfer for these flows is linearly dependent on the “effective” free-stream turbulence intensity.
