Heat transfer analysis of longitudinal fins of trapezoidal and dovetail profile on an inclined surface

The trapezoidal and dovetail profiled longitudinal fin structures exposed to a convective-radiative environment and mounted on an inclined surface have been considered for the analysis. The fin structures have been assumed to be porous and fully wet in nature. The Darcy model has been implemented to simulate the fluid-solid interactions. Further, the convective and radiative heat transfer coefficients have been taken to be temperature-dependent. The resulting equation has been reduced by introducing the non-dimensional quantities and then solved by employing the Runge-Kutta Fehlberg 4th-5th order method along with the shooting technique. The effect of tip tapering, angle of inclination, fully wet nature, porosity, internal heat generation, and other pertinent parameters on the fin thermal profile and fin heat transfer rate has been presented graphically and discussed. It has been inferred that the dovetail fin profile achieves the highest heat transfer rate followed by rectangular and trapezoidal fin profiles provided the internal heat generation is minimal. The present work is significant for fin design purposes and also acts as a verification tool for future research.

Automated summary

The study investigated the thermal behavior of trapezoidal and dovetail profiled longitudinal fin structures on an inclined surface, with results showing that the fin profile and internal heat generation have the greatest impact on heat transfer rate.