 Enhancing heat transfer rates from closed-sided, open-topped heat exchangers, each having vertical rectangular fins extending upwards from a horizontal baseK. Jambunathan, S. D. Probert and M. J. Shilston Applied Energy, 1984, vol. 17, issue 1, 47-75 Abstract: The almost two-dimensional steady-state rates of heat loss from arrays of uniformly-spaced vertical rectangular fins, extending upwards--in otherwise stagnant air--from horizontal heated bases, have been measured. (The vertical air gaps between the fins were closed at their sides, by insulated vertical end-barriers.) The effects of various combinations of height, thickness and spacing of the fins, for different base temperatures (in the range 40 to 100°C), have been studied. For the configuration considered, in a normal ambient environment (~ 20°C), there is an optimal fin spacing ([reverse similar, equals] 16 mm) corresponding to the greatest steady-state rate of free convective/conductive heat loss through the air from the finned system, and this is almost independent of the temperature of the heat exchanger base (in the range 40-100°C). At this optimal spacing for base temperatures not greater than 50°C, the convective/conductive heat transfer rate from the array increases with the fin height up to about 60 mm, so that it would be uneconomic to employ taller fins if convection/conduction is dominant compared with radiation. If the radiation contribution is also considered, then the optimal spacing corresponding to the maximum total steady-state rate of heat loss through the air is somewhat less than the optimal spacing for which, under the same temperature conditions, the maximum steady-state rate of convective/conductive heat leak occurs. The greater the emissivity of the heat exchanger surfaces, the narrower the optimal uniform gaps between the fins. A two-dimensional finite-difference computer program has been composed to predict the temperature distribution throughout the heat exchanger for a stipulated ambient environmental temperature and experimentally-determined distribution of the heat transfer coefficient over the surfaces of the exchanger. This enables, for instance, any hot spots to be located prior to a proposed design being built. Date: 1984 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:17:y:1984:i:1:p:47-75 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier |
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