Numerical Investigation of Natural Convection Heat Transfer from Fin

Ahmed F. Khudheyer ahyaja@yahoo.com,

Abstract In this study, the enhancement of natural convection heat transfer from a horizontal rectangular finembedded with rectangular perforations of aspect ratio of two has been examined using finite elementtechnique. The results for perforated fin have been compared with its equivalent solid one. A parametricstudy for geometrical dimensions and thermal properties of the fin and the perforations was carried out.The study investigated the gain in fin area and of heat transfer coefficients due to perforations. It wasfound that, for certain range of rectangular dimension and spaces between perforations, there is anaugmentation in heat dissipation and a reduction in weight over that of the equivalent solid one. Also,the heat transfer enhancement of the perforated fin increases as the fin thickness and thermal conductivity increase. decreased. As for the hole diameter, almost all cases showed an increase in heat transfer with diameter except for the case of high Grashof number (1x87) and high spacing ratio. performed on natural convection heat transfer from circular pin fin heat sinks subject to the influence of its geometry, heat flux and orientation. The geometric dependence of heat dissipation from heat sinks of widely spaced solid and hollow/perforated circular pin fins with staggered combination, fitted into a heated base of fixed area is discussed. Over the tested range of Rayleigh number, 3.886Ra1.6587, it was found that the solid pin fin heat sink performance for upward and sideward orientations shows a competitive nature, depending on Rayleigh number and generally shows higher heat transfer coefficients than those of the perforated/ hollow pin fin ones in both arrangement. For all tested hollow/perforated pin fin heat sinks, however, the performance for sideward facing orientation was better than that for upward facing orientation. This argument is supported by observing that the augmentation factor was around 1.05-1.11 Index Termsvertical Fins, Natural Convection.

Hiba W. Ahmed eng_h178740@yahoo.com

I. INTRODUCTION The removal of excessive heat from system components is essential to avoid damaging effects of burning or overheating. Therefore, the enhancement of heat transfer is an important subject of thermal engineering (Sahin and Demir, 2008a). Extended surfaces (fins) are frequently used in heat exchanging devices for the purpose of increasing the heat transfer between a primary surface and the surrounding fluid. Various types of heat exchanger fins, ranging from relatively simple shapes, such as rectangular, square, cylindrical, annular, tapered or pin fins, to a combination of different geometries, have been used (Sahin and Demir, 2008b). The study of improving heat transfer performance is referred to as heat transfer augmentation, enhancement or intensification. The heat transfer augmentation is very important subject in industrial heat exchangers and other thermal application. There are many techniques which are available for augmentation for single or two-phase heat transfer in natural or forced convection. Those techniques may be passive methods or active schemes (Kakac et al., 1781). The heat transfer improvement may in general be achieved by either of increasing the heat transfer coefficients, or the heat transfer surface area or by both (Sahin and Demir, 2008a, Sahin; Demir, 2008b). In most cases, the area of heat transfer is increased by utilizing extended surfaces in the form of fins attached to walls and surfaces (Bergles, 1781). Fins are normally used as heat transfer enhancement devices. As the extended surfaces (fins) technology continues to grow, new design ideas emerge including fins made of anisotropic composites, porous media, perforated and interrupted plates (Kakac et al., 1781; Bergles, 1781; AlEssa and Al-Hussien, 2004; Mullisen and Loehrke, 1786). Due the high demand for lightweight, compact, and economical fins, the optimization of fin size is of great importance. Therefore, fins must be designed to achieve maximum heat removal with minimum material expenditure and easy manufacturing procedure (Prasad and Gupta, 1778; Kutscher, 1774; Al-Essa, 2000). Previous studies by Kakac et al. (1781), Bergles (1781), Al-Essa and Al-Hussien (2004), Prasad and Gupta (1778) and Al-Essa (2000) had introduced shape modifications by cutting some material from fins to make cavities, holes, slots, grooves, or channels through the fin body to increase the heat transfer area and/or coefficient. One popular heat transfer augmentation technique involves the use of rough surfaces of different configurations. Moreover, perforated fins provide potentially better performing fins as they offer less flow resistance compared to the solid counterpart [7]. Although sufficient and accurate correlations exist for heat transfer calculations for the solid rectangular and other shapes of fins, perforated fins, to the best of the authors' knowledge as based on an extensive literature search, have not been adequately investigated when embedded with perforations in the sense introduced in this study whether it is over the fin perforated surfaces or, and especially, within the perforations themselves. Previous related studies considered similar fins but utilized rough approximations for heat transfer calculations especially when it came to inside the holes [8]. This study considers a single straight rectangular fin embedded with vertical circular perforations that are cut through the fin's body. The fin is attached to a vertical surface at a uniform temperature Ts and operates under natural convection conditions. The study aims at examining the potential enhancement of heat transfer rate due to perforations especially as affected by fin geometric as well as flow parameters using the FLUENT 6.326 software package.

2. Heat Sink Model A typical parallel plate heat sink considered in this present work is shown in Fig. 1. The important geometric variables considered are fin height , fin thickness , base height and fin pitch. A typical computational model of the parallel plate heat sink created in Gambit is shown in Fig. 2. Governing Equations of Fluid Flow The most general form of fluid flow and heat transfer equations of compressible Newtonian fluid with time dependency used in solver execution is given as follows: Mass:

X momentum : Y momentum : Z momentum :

Energy : P=RT

Equation of state:

where is the density, u,v and w are velocity components, V is the velocity vector, p is the pressure, S terms are the source terms and terms are the viscous stress components which are defined for a Newtonian fluid as.

3.CFD Simulations
In the modeling and simulation, three levels in these input geometric parameters are chosen such that the differences are large enough to measure changes in the responses. If the levels are too close to each other, the change might not be large enough to detect and the opportunity for optimization could be lost. If the levels are too far apart, the design space of interest may not be able to be. The range of geometric parameters of the chosen heat sink for the present study is given in Table 1. Considering the various geometric variables present, 81 models are created in gambit and simulation are carried out using Fluent to determine the output parameters like base temperature, pressure drop.

Table 1. Range of geometric parameters

The simulations are carried out using fluent software with air flow at 12 CFM and a heat input of 80 W at the heat sink base. 4. Results and Discussion In this work the study has been started modeling an heat sink, commercially available, made by two aluminum horizontal rectangular thick fins per side positioned on a wide horizontal base plate. The visualization of the natural convection flow for the structure was implemented numerically by developing an appropriate model of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Particular attention has been devoted to the time evolution of natural convection flow in the heating phase of the structure starting from t=0 (cold) to the development of the steady state After considering various constrains in the heat sink design, selecting a parallel plate heat sink with optimum geometric parameters such as optimum fin thickness, optimum fin height, and optimum base height and optimum gap between the fins, can improve the effective heat transfer. Each solution reached convergence with an average time of about 2 days. By keeping constant the external dimension of the heat sink horizontal base plate we proposed two different geometries. In a first case was increased the spacing between the vertical fins in order to allow a greater lateral working volume for the convective process. In a second case the surface has been extended with the introduction of an additional vertical profile fin on each side. With a thermal load of 3 W localized in the middle of the base plate the temperature observed for the hot spot at the steady state in the commercial configuration was 71C. It stabilized at 63C for the configuration with two fins profiles each side separated by increased distance and 56C for the three-finned side proposal. The CFD - - model was also developed to monitor the evolution of the boundary layer, highlighting, in the volume surrounding the heat sink, the time evolution of the low-speed flow recirculation areas. To enhance the readability of the extension of the stagnation areas of overheated flow in convective motion some appropriate numerical probes were positioned. It was observed that the commercial heat sink presents a lower speed level of flow recirculation in the region between the vertical profiles in the side channels, as well as an extensive central area of stagnation. The effects of increasing the spacing between the side vertical fins of the structure results in a higher speed of the natural convective flows in the channels. The most intense recirculation speed was observed in the central region of the three-side profiles prototype. The increasing of the surface by the insertion of a third vertical profile further reduces the operating temperature. The natural convection heat transfer from extended surfaces is, so far, the primary method of electronics cooling. Cooling techniques based only on natural convection are of particular interest in all those situations where demands for miniaturization and low noise are dominant, and it is also a simple, reliable and low cost. With finned surfaces in air and natural convection, it is possible to manage a thermal power of 0.3 W/cm2 with a temperature difference of T = 78C [1, 2]. Fig. 7 and 8 that established that as the diameter increases, buoyancy forces (that tend to push the flow through the holes against viscous forces) increase because the volume inside the hole increases whereas viscous forces (that tend to prevent flow from getting through) in each hole decrease because the characteristic length within which these forces act decreases leading to heat transfer enhancement. In addition, and viewed from a different perspective, if each hole is considered as a vertical pipe wherein heat is transferred naturally, each hole will have a local Grashof number similar to the overall Grashof number though with a different characteristic length where this length becomes the diameter of the hole rather than the length of the fin. This value of the local Grashof number is proportional to the hole or "pipe" diameter to the third power. Therefore, increasing the diameter will increase the local Grashof number and thus effect substantial increase in heat transfer in the hole as demonstrated above.

5. Conclusion In this research work, optimal design of the heat sink have been carried out on a parallel plate heat sink considering the geometric parameters such as fin height , fin thickness , base height and fin pitch with a constant length and width of a heat sink usi ng computational fluid dynamics study. The simulation is carried out with the Commercial software provided by fluent Inc. Experimental studies have been carried out with a parallel plate heat sink to validate the heat sink model. The results obtai ned in the experimental studies have been compared with the simulation results and found to be in good agreement. This study showed that for certain values of rectangular perforation dimension, the perforated fin enhances heat transfer. The magnitude of enhancement is proportional to the fin thickness and its thermal conductivity. Also, the extent of heat dissipation rate enhancement for perforated fins is a function of the fin dimensions, the per-foration geometry and the fin thermophysical properties. Furthermore, the gain in heat dissipation rate for the perforated fin is a strong relation of both, the perforation dimension and the lateral spacing. Finally, not only the perforation of fins enhances heat dissipation but also decreases the weight of the fin.

References [1] Al-Essa AH (2000). Enhancement of thermal performance of fins subjected to natural convection through body perforation, Ph.D. thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Baghdad, Iraq and University of Science and Technology. Jordan. [2]Al-Essa AH, Al-Hussien MSF(2004). The effect of orientation of square perforations on the heat transfer enhancement from a fin subjected to natural convection", Heat and mass transfer 40(5): 07-515. [3]Al-Essa AHM (2006). "One Dimensional Finite Element Solution of the Rectangular Fin with Rectangular Perforations", Wseas Transactions on Heat and Mass Transfer, Issue 8(1): 762-768. [4]Aziz A, Lunadini V (1775). Multidimensional steady conduction in convicting, radiating, and convicting-radiating fins and fin assemblies, Heat Transfer Engineering 16(3): 32-64. [5]Bergles AE (1781). Technique to augment heat transfer. In Handbook of heat transfer Applications, (Edited by Werren M. Rohsenow, James P. Hartnett, and Ejup N. Ganic), Ch. 3, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill Book company, NY. [6]Incropera FP, Dewitt DP (2007). Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer (Sixth Edition), 144, John Wiley and sons, New York. [7]Kakac E, Bergles A, Mayinger SF (1781). Heat Exchangers, Thermal - Hydraulic Fundamentals and Design H emisphere Publishing Corporation. [8] AlEssa, A. H. and Al-Widyan, M.I., (2008). Enhancement of Natural Convection Heat Transfer from a Fin by Triangular Perforation of Bases Parallel and toward its Tip, Appl. Math. Mech. -Engl. Ed. (Shanghai University and Springer-Verlag), Vol. 27(8), 833-844.

Figure 1. A schematic diagram of the fin considered in this study.

Figure 2. A sample of the mesh utilized for the perforated fin considered in this study.

Figure 3. Heat transfer enhancement versus Gr with as a parameter for = 5.

Figure 4. Heat transfer enhancement versus with temperature difference for = 7.5.

Figure 5. Heat transfer enhancement versus with temperature difference for = 8.

Figure 6. A typical temperature distribution in heat sink simulated using Fluent 6.3.2.6

Figure 7. Dimensionless stream line distribution profile.

Figure8. Dimensionless vorticity, *, distribution profile (contour)