Experimental comparison of micro-scaled plate-fins and pin-fins under natural convection

Leonardo Micheli,K.S Reddy,Tapas K Mallick

doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2016.03.023

Leonardo Micheli, K.S Reddy + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2016.03.023

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Abstract

The present work analyses, for the first time, the heat transfer from pin micro-fins. The scope of the present paper is comparing thermal performance of plate micro-fin and pin micro-fin arrays under natural convection conditions in air. Two fin geometries are considered: plate and pin fin arrays with the same thermal exchanging surface are tested. The investigation shows that the pin micro-fins can improve the thermal performance compared to plate micro-fin arrays. Indeed, pin micro-fins are found to have higher heat transfer coefficients and lower thermal resistances, as well as a better material usage. This makes pin micro-fins able to achieve both thermal enhancement and weight reduction than plate micro-fins. The radiative heat transfer is also calculated: a new model to determine the radiative view factors of pin fins is proposed and is used in the analysis. The effect of the orientation is considered as well.

Highlights

The term “fin” refers to an extended surface employed to improve the heat transfer from a solid to the surrounding fluid [1]
The present paper reported the preliminary results of an experimental investigation conducted on micro-fins array
It analysed the thermal performance of pin micro-fins compared to that of plate micro-fins with the same extensions

Summary

Introduction

The term “fin” refers to an extended surface employed to improve the heat transfer from a solid to the surrounding fluid [1]. Due to their simplicity and reliability, finned heat sinks have been widely used in passive cooling applications [2]. Iyengar and Bar-Cohen [6] found that optimized pin-fins had better thermal performance per unit of mass than optimized plate-fins. Joo and Kim [4] recently demonstrated that, under fixed volume conditions, pin-fins have generally better heat dissipation per unit of mass than plate-fins, which, instead, have a better global heat dissipation. Despite its non-negligible contribution in the heat sink heat transfer [7], only Sparrow and Vemuri [5] took into account the radiation in the analysis

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