Fin performance in an oscillating temperature environment

Abstract

An analytical solution is presented to describe the performance of a straight convecting fin operating in an oscillating temperature environment. The solution involves the amplitude parameter, A, and the frequency parameter, B, in addition to the steady-state convection-conduction parameter, N. The effects of these parameters on the amplitude and phase angle of spatial temperature and base heat flux are discussed. For most practical finned surfaces, i.e. N < 2, the time-average fin efficiency is found to be practically independent of B in the range 0·01–10 but increases as A increases. This is in contrast with the previously reported study of periodic variation of base temperature wherein, for N < 1, the time-average fin efficiency was found to reduce significantly with the increase of parameters A and B in the same range.