Heat transfer analysis of convection and radiation in a triangular fins heat exchanger

Abstract EN

The effects of convection and radiation on triangular heat exchanger fins of a catalytic reactor are investigated.

Heat is transferred by conduction along the fin and dissipated from the surface by convection and radiation.

The base of the fin is maintained at a variable elevated temperature, while the tip loses heat due to convection and radiation.

Due to symmetry and simplicity of analysis, one of the walls is considered.

A general finite difference formulation, that accounts for free and forced convection and for radiative heat transfer with a simple model is developed to predict the temperature and rate of heat transfer along the fin.

In this study, the convection heat transfer coefficient is considered to be varying between (10-150) W / m2.

K with air as the cooling medium.

The temperature distribution of reactor surface is estimated by using finite difference method and the results are compared with the ANSYS9 finite element code results.

The temperature profiles of radiation show different aspects and it is found that the radiation term has not effect on temperature profile, so the radiation can be ignored in the case of forced convection system.

While it has a significant effect in the case of free convection system.

On the other hand, the validity of thermal results for free and forced convection and radiation effect is good agreement between the results of the numerical solution and ANSYS9 results.