Analytical Investigation of Gaussian Roughness Effects on the Thermal Performance of Conical Microfins

Abstract

Effects of Gaussian surface roughness on different aspects of thermal performance of conical microfins are investigated. A new analytical model is developed, applying the Adomian decomposition method. Convergence of the Adomian solution to the exact solution is shown, by increasing the number of computed decomposition terms. In addition, to verify the present solution, the obtained results are compared with the analytical results of Bahrami et al. (2007, “Role of Random Roughness on Thermal Performance of Microfins,” J. Thermophys. Heat Transfer, 21(1), pp. 153–157) for the uniform cross-section microfin. Surface roughness effects on temperature distribution, base heat flux at different Nusselt numbers, and thermal resistance of the microfin are investigated. It is observed that the thermal resistance of the smooth microfin is higher than the rough one and by increasing the roughness, the thermal resistance experiences further reduction.