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Natural convection from pin fin arrays

1990; Elsevier BV; Volume: 3; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0894-1777(90)90042-6

1879-2286

Antonios I. Zografos, J. E. Sunderland,

Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows

Pin fins are used to increase heat transfer from heated surfaces to air. Industrial experience has shown that for the same surface area, pin fins can transfer considerably more energy than straight fins. The analysis of a single pin fin is well known. However, when fins are placed in an array, the convective patterns become interrelated, and the resulting heat transfer coefficient has not been predicted. An experimental investigation was carried out during which three pin fin arrays were tested inline and staggered under a variety of heat inputs and inclinations. This investigation suggests that the most important geometric parameter influencing the heat transfer from pin fin arrays is the ratio of the fin diameter to the center-to-center spacing. From our measurements and other available experimental data, we developed an empirical model that predicts the performance of pin fin arrays for a wide range of Rayleigh numbers and geometries. The experimental results indicate that a pin fin array performs better than a plate fin array under the same conditions, and the best performance occurs when the ratio of fin diameter to center-to-center spacing is about 13.