Thermal wave propagation in a functionally graded annular fin with fixed base

Abstract

Thermal wave propagation and efficiency analysis of thin axially symmetric functionally graded annular fins with a fixed base boundary condition are examined. All material properties are graded along the radial direction using the Mori–Tanaka homogenization scheme to design a realistic and physically meaningful graded material model and create a smooth distribution of elastic and thermal material properties. The novelty of this research is handling a more realistic annular fin, which has sufficient strength in practice and significantly reduces weight, using two different metal materials with the elasticity-based Mori–Tanaka model. These conditions result in two-point linear boundary value problems that are numerically solved by the pseudospectral Chebyshev method. The temperature distributions, thermal stresses and the efficiency in the functionally graded annular fin are compared with fins made of steel only and aluminium only.