A numerical study of entry region laminar mixed convection over shrouded vertical fin arrays

Abstract

A computational study of laminar mixed convection over a shrouded vertical rectangular fin array attached to a vertical base has been performed. Maintaining the base-fin system above the surrounding temperature, a fan velocity is imposed to enhance the heat transfer through the mixed convection process. Present study finds the effects of clearance spacing, fin spacing, fin length, Reynolds number and Grashof number on the thermal performance of the base-fin system. Mixed convection inlet velocity is decoupled to forced and natural convection velocity components and the resulting pressure drop across the duct length arises purely due to the forced convection velocity component. Thus, Reynolds number is estimated based on forced convection velocity component as the inlet velocity does not vanish even in pure natural convection. Computed local Nusselt number shows sharp drop near the entrance and reaches a fully developed value after a certain streamwise distance from the entrance. Further, fully developed local Nusselt number shows a clear maximum at the clearance spacing of 0.075 and 0.15 for the inter-fin spacing of 0.3 and 0.5 respectively. Pressure drop across the duct, induced natural convection velocity and overall Nusselt number are well correlated with the governing parameters of the problem.