Steady State Free Convection through some Variable Fin Geometries

Abstract

Thermal performances on some typical variable geometries were conducted in this work which can be reported into two phases. In the first phase of this work, fins of rectangular, cylindrical, and conical geometries having the same total surface area were studied. It is found that the cylindrical fin is the least efficient and least effective among the three. In the second phase, design modification in the form of grooves is made on cylindrical fins. Cutting grooves on cylindrical fins increase its surface area. The three grooved cylindrical fins are namely- fully grooved cylindrical fins, bottom half grooved cylindrical fins, and top half grooved cylindrical fins. All three grooved fins have the same volume. It was noticed hat, on cutting groove the on fin the quality of convective heat transfer, as well as the effectiveness, improves, but the efficiency degrades. Keywords: Finite Element Method, thermal steady state, fin effectiveness, fin efficiency, free convection