Special Heat Transfer Coefficients

4.13C Extended Surfaces or Finned Exchangers

Nehal I. Abu-Lail

 How to increase q at fixed T1 and T2?

Newtons law of cooling states that:
qconvection=hA(T1-T2)
We either increase h (forced convection) or A (using
fins).

Examples include:
Automobile radiators
Ears and nose
Finned heat exchangers

Two common types of fins

For a metallic tube with hi
and ho, qualitative effect of
fins can be seen using:

Flow

1
1
1
R
Rmetal
U i Ai
hi Ai
ho Ao

We can neglect R metal

Flow
as metals have high k
Assume T to be the
same for tube wall and
fin
When we have fins, Ao will increase and the outside convective R will be reduced
So what? This can affect our choice of where to place hot and cold fluids in an exchanger
arrangement.
Steam outside, ho is high
Steam inside, hi is high
Air inside, hi is small
Air outside, ho is small
Fins outside, increase Ao
Fins outside, increase Ao
Increasing Ao will do little to
and thus decrease 1/hoAo
increasing q because ho is high
q will increase
already and 1/hoAo is small.

 What we have done so far is just an approximation.

We know that T at the base of fin is different from that at the end of
the fin because of added resistance to heat flow by conduction from
the fin tip to the base of the fin.
Hence, a unit area of fin surface is not efficient as a unit area of bare
tube surface at the base of the fin.
A fin efficiency is derived for various geometries of fins.
We will do it here only for a 1D rectangular fin

Fin Efficiency

In reality, the temperature drops along the

fin, and thus the heat transfer from the fin
is less.

In the limiting case of zero thermal resistance or infinite thermal

conductivity ( k ), the temperature of the fin is uniform
(maximized) at the base value of Tb

The heat transfer from a fin is maximum and

can be expressed as:
.

Q fin ,max hA fin Tb T

Af is the total surface area of the fin.

Derivation of fin efficiency

Assumptions:
Steady state
1 dimensional (x direction),
exposed to surrounding at T
At any x, T =Tfin
The base of the fin is at To

Let us perform heat balance

dT
kA
dx

qc is heat loss by convection

q x q x x qc
dT
kA
x x h( px )(T T )
dx

P is perimeter of the fin

Divide by x and take the limit as x goes to zero to get:

d dT
kA ( ) hp (T T ),
dx dx

d 2T hp
(T T ), T T , dT d
2
dx
kA

d 2 hp
0
2
dx
kA

d 2 hp
0 Call
2
dx
kA

hp
m = constant
kA

To solve this ODE, we need two B.C.s:

At x=0 (base of the fin), T=To, =To-T
If the tip of fin is insulated, then at x=L, d/dx=0 (adiabatic tip, q=0)
If fin losses heat by convection at its tip, that has to equal conduction at the
dT
tip, kA L hA(TL T ) , note that A will cancel out. This is a little bit
dx
involved solution and will not go with it.
If the fin is infinitely long, T at the tip (x=L) will be = T

To solve, this is a second order, homogenous equation

2
2
d 2
2
(
D

m
) 0, D m Two real roots, solution will be:

0,
dx 2
A1 exp mx A2 exp mx Apply B.C.s, solve for A1 and A2 to get:

o e 2 mL
1 e

2 mL

exp
mx

Remember that:

o
1 e

2 mL

e x e x
cosh x
2

exp

mx

T T cosh[m( L x)]

,
o To T
cosh mL

Heat lost by the fin can be expressed as:

dT
q kA
dx

x 0

(hpkA) 0.5 (To T ) tanh nL

For actual fins, T decreases as we approach fin tip

The rate of heat loss per unit area decreases with fin distance
as we approach tip (distance from base increases)
To account for this, we use a fin efficiency (f)
A fin efficiency is the ratio of the actual heat transfer from the
fin to the heat transfer of the fin if the entire fin was at the base
Temperature To.

(hpkA) 0.5 (To T ) tanh mL tanh mL

f

hPL(To T )
mL
1
2

1
2

h(2 w 2t )
hp
mL L
L

kA
k ( wt )

In fins which are too thin,

2t<<2w

1
2

2h
mL L
kt

 When heat is lost from the tip of the fin (no insulation), we will
correct for fin length (Lc)
Lc=L+(t/2)=Corrected fin length
For longitudinal and circular fins respectively, the charts below give f.

Longitudinal

A f 2 ( Lc xw)

Circular

A f 2 [( Lc r1 ) 2 (r1 ) 2 ]

Example 4.13-2 Fin efficiency and heat loss from a

fin
A circular aluminum fin with k = 222 W/m.K is attached to a
copper tube having an OD of 0.04 m. The length of the fin is 0.04
m and its thickness is 2 mm. The OD tube base is at T=523.2 K
and the surrounding T of air is 343.2 K. Air has a convective h of
30 W/m2.K. Calculate f and q lost from fin?

Solution

Sketch the problem

Identify variables and assumptions
We will use charts. To do that, we need Lc
Calculate the quantities needed for chart
Read efficiency from chart=0.89
Calculate heat loss

q f f hA f (To T )

A f 2 [( Lc r1 ) 2 (r1 ) 2 ]

Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient for Finned Tubes

T
Consider a tube with outside fins
Heat transfer will occur through a series of R
The total heat loss from outside the tube is the q
sum of heat loss by convection from base of tube
(qt) and heat loss by convection from the fins (qf)

Fins
ho

T2
T3
hi

T4

xA

ri

ro

kA

q qt q f ho At (T1 T2 ) ho A f f (T1 T2 )
These can be written in terms of resistances in // as:
q

T1 T 2
1
ho At f ho A

T1 T 2
R

At: Area of tube

between fins
Af: Area of fins

R here can replace outside convective R (1/hoAo) we have seen before for
a finned heat tube exchanger. For Ui, q=UiAi(T1-T4)
Ui

1
Ai
1 x A Ai

hi k A AAlm ho ( At A f f )