Comparison of free convection flow around an engineered porous fin with spherical connections and rigid fin under different positioning angles—An experimental and numerical analysis

Abstract

In this paper, the free convective flow around an engineered porous fin with spherical connections is investigated experimentally and numerically. In addition, the effects of different positioning angles for different fin materials on thermal fin performance are analyzed. First, the copper, aluminum, and brass fins are made and their thermal performances under free convective flow are examined experimentally. Then, in order to extend the results, after validation the numerical analysis is carried out in steady and three-dimensional calculations. Then, at different positioning angles, the formed free convective flow around the porous fin is analyzed numerically and compared with the results of a rigid fin. The results show that the efficiency of the copper fins at all positioning angles is maximal. It was also found that the highest amount of Nusselt number occurs at the angle of 45°. In the numerical investigations, it is determined that the maximum increase in the Nusselt number of the engineered porous fins is about two times that of the rigid fin. Moreover, a relationship between the Nusselt number and the Rayleigh number is presented for a horizontal engineered porous fin in laminar free convection flow.