Numerical Simulation of the Thermal Performance of a Wavy Fin Configuration of a Straight Fin

Abstract

Fins over the years have been used as heat exchangers for exchanging heat generated in engineering machines or systems, between the system surface and the ambient air. But the challenge of thermal design for the best geometry of heat fin prompted the study to determining the performance of a wavy and straight fin projecting vertically from a horizontal base, by comparing their rate of heat transfer. In this study a free convection steady state numerical analysis was carried out using SolidWorks 2018 flow simulation application, which is based on Computational Flow Dynamics (CFD) based on finite volume method. Three fin arrays were modelled with SolidWorks 2018, such as the straight and wavy fin of fin height, 35mm and spacing, 14.2 mm. the third fin was a straight fin of height, 50 mm equivalent of the effective wavelength of the wavy fin, but of same fin spacing. Aluminium metal was selected as the material, and the simulation was done using air as the fluid, of temperature, and convective heat coefficient, 27 oC and 20 W/m.K. Simulation was carried out at different temperatures for each geometry, ranging from, 45 oC-120 oC. The results showed that the difference in the rate of heat transfer for the wavy fin and straight fin were close at low temperature but significantly increased to about 28% at higher temperatures in favour of the wavy fin. The third fin had an insignificant 9% heat transfer rate higher than the wavy fin but 43% additional height, thereby occupy more space.