The function estimates the heat transfer coefficient for various taxa based on empirical measurements (Mitchell 1976) .

heat_transfer_coefficient(u, D, K, nu, taxon = "cylinder")

Arguments

u

numeric air velocity (m s-1).

D

numeric characteristic dimension (e.g., diameter or snout-vent length) (meters).

K

numeric thermal conductivity of air (W K-1 m-1), can calculate using DRYAIR or WETAIR.

nu

numeric kinematic viscosity of air (m2 s-1), can calculate using DRYAIR or WETAIR.

taxon

character which class of organism, current choices: "sphere", "cylinder", "frog", "lizard_surface", "lizard_elevated", "flyinginsect", "spider".
"cylinder" assumes 40 < Re < 4000. "lizard_surface" and "lizard_elevated" assume the lizard is prostrate on and elevated above the surface, respectively. The values are the average for lizards parallel and perpendicular to the air flow.

Value

numeric heat transfer coefficient, H_L (W K-1 m-2).

References

Mitchell JW (1976). “Heat transfer from spheres and other animal forms.” Biophysical Journal, 16(6), 561-569. ISSN 0006-3495, doi:10.1016/S0006-3495(76)85711-6 .

Examples

  heat_transfer_coefficient(u     = 0.5,
                            D     = 0.05,
                            K     = 25.7 * 10^(-3),
                            nu    = 15.3 * 10^(-6),
                            taxon = "cylinder")
#> [1] 9.936011