Heat transfer enhancement of rectangular fins with circular perforations

Abstract

Heat transfer augmentation devices like fins have been around for quite long time. Because of the increased demand for lightweight, thin, and cost-effective fins, fin size optimization is important. As a result, fins must be designed to extract the most heat with the least amount of material while keeping the fin’s ease of manufacture in consideration. The enhancement in heat transfer coefficient is related to the resetting of the thermal boundary layer for each disturbance. Perforated plates in fins are examples of surface disturbance. The aim of this research is to analyze the temperature reduction over a variety of circular perforations. Numerical simulation (ANSYS Fluent code) is employed to examine fins with perforations. A FVM code is used to solve turbulent air flow and heat transfer equations across fins. Over a continuum of circular perforation counts, other variables such as heat flux and thermal gradient are compared. It was observed that there was a significant temperature drop as well as an improvement in heat transfer. The results can be extended to the design of rectangular fin heat exchangers.