Natural Convection From Interrupted Vertical Walls

Abstract

Steady-state external natural convection heat transfer from interrupted rectangular vertical walls is investigated. A systematic numerical, experimental, and analytical study is conducted on the effect of adding interruptions to a vertical plate. Comsol multiphysics is used to develop a two-dimensional numerical model for investigation of fin interruption effects on natural convection. A custom-designed testbed is built and six interrupted wall samples are machined from aluminum. An effective length is introduced for calculating the natural convection heat transfer from interrupted vertical walls. Performing an asymptotic analysis and using a blending technique, a new compact relationship is proposed for the Nusselt number. Our results show that adding interruptions to a vertical wall can enhance heat transfer rate up to 16% and reduce the weight of the fins, which in turn, lead to lower manufacturing and material costs.