Experimental Study of Concentric Staggered Annular Fin with Radial Outlet and Staggered Rectangular Fin with Lateral Outlet

Abstract

In this paper, an experimental study of a concentric staggered annular fin with radial outlets and a staggered rectangular fin with lateral outlets for steady-state natural convection, and forced convection is presented. The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of shape, profile and arrangement of the fins in heat transfer with minimum blockage ratio, stagnation, and pressure drop. In this regard, the two different shapes of fins are designed with the same material, identical extended surface area, width, and thickness; and studied experimentally with identical thermal load and boundary conditions, as well as identical flow characteristics. In case of forced convection, the orientation of the base-plate of the fins is kept perpendicular to the direction of flow to achieve velocity vectors parallel to the fin surfaces. The overall heat transfer coefficient, fin efficiency, effectiveness, and temperature distribution of both fins are compared for different base-plate's temperature of the fins and different free stream air velocity; and also for natural convection. It is found that the shape of the fins has a significant effect on heat transfer, especially in the case of forced convection. Though both fins are performed almost the same in natural convection, the concentric staggered annular fin with radial outlets performed better in forced convection. It is concluded that the concentric staggered annular fin with radial outlets can be used in the practical field instead of the conventional rectangular fin, particularly for forced convection.