Numerical simulation of the thermal performance of a wavy fin configuration for a straight fin array

Abstract

Fins over the years have been used as heat exchangers for exchanging heat generated in engineering machines or systems, between the system surface and the ambient air. However, the challenge of thermal design for the best geometry of heat fin prompted the study, to determining the performance of a wavy and straight fin projecting vertically from a horizontal base, by comparing their rate of heat transfer. In this study a free convection steady state numerical analysis was carried out using Solidworks 2018 flow simulation application, which is based on finite volume method of Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD). The numerical analysis was carried out on three different fin array configurations, all of the same fin spacing or separation distance. The three fin array modeled includes the straight and wavy fin of fin height, 35mm and spacing, 14.2mm respectively. The third fin was a straight fin of height, 50mm equivalent of the effective wavelength of the wavy fin, but of same fin spacing. Aluminum metal was selected as the material, and the simulation was done using air as the fluid, of temperature, and convective heat coefficient, 27°C and 20W/mK respectively. Simulation was carried out at different temperatures for each geometry, ranging from 45°C – 120°C. The results showed that the difference in the rate of heat transfer for the wavy fin and straight fin were close at low temperatures, but significantly increased to about 28% at higher temperatures in favor of the wavy fin. The third fin had an insignificant 9% heat transfer rate higher than the wavy fin but with 43% additional height, thereby occupying more space. It is established from this study that wavy fin array possesses higher convection heat transfer performance than the straight rectangular fin array. Therefore, in a bit to achieve high performance heat transfer with limited space, a wavy fin array is recommended.