Natural Convection Heat Transfer From Horizontal Rectangular Inverted Notched Fin Arrays

Abstract

The variables for natural convection cooling with the help of finned surfaces are orientation and geometry. In lengthwise short array (L/H∼5), where single chimney flow pattern is present, a stagnant zone is created at the central bottom portion of fin array channel and hence it does not contribute much in heat dissipation. Hence it is removed in the form of inverted notch at the central bottom portion of fin to modify its geometry for enhancement of heat transfer. An experimental setup is developed for studying the investigation on normal and inverted notched fin arrays (INFAs). Fin spacing, heater input, and percentage of area removed in the form of inverted notch are the parameters. For few spacing, it is verified by computational fluid dynamics analysis (Course Notes on Introduction to Commercial CFD of Tridiagonal Solutions, Pune), and the results are well matching. It is found that the average heat transfer coefficient for INFAs is nearly 30–40% higher as compared with normal array.