A Comparative Study on a Shrouded Fin Array With and Without Its Finite Dimension in the Flow Geometry

Abstract

In numerical heat transfer analysis, despite the involvement of the finite dimension in the geometries of heat exchanging devices, these dimensions are frequently assumed to be adequately thin and hence neglected for the ease of analysis. But it may be essential to include the finite dimension of the heat transfer equipment which makes the study more realistic. There are numerical reports on fin heat transfer, which involve with and without consideration of the fin-thickness in the flow geometry. But there remains a dearth of literature in which the results of the fin heat transfer obtained from these considerations are compared. In this essence, an attempt has been made to compare the results obtained from a study of numerical heat transfer on a shrouded vertical fin array with and without consideration of fin-thickness in the flow geometry under mixed convection. From the present computations, it is noted that with the consideration of the fin-thickness, there is a possibility of an increase in axial pressure defect by around 45% indicating the requirement of higher pumping power. Again for the chosen range of parameters, overall Nusselt number increases by around 18% as compared to without fin-thickness that may arise due to altered heat transfer coefficient caused by higher velocity over the extended surface to accommodate finite fin dimension. Finally pressure drop and Nusselt number is correlated with the governing parameters including fin-thickness.