Numerical analysis of naturally convected and radiated heat transfer in horizontally oriented fins array under laminar conditions

In this study, the natural convection and radiation heat transfer in a horizontally oriented rectangular fins arrays have been studied under the conditions of laminar flow, at the same time. The problem has numerically been solved by using Fluent 6.3 software. The distributions of velocity, pressure and temperature between fin arrays have been analyzed. Experimental results in the literature have been compared with numerical results and found that they are in agreement. In the present study the effects of fin length, height, fin spacing, velocity and the temperature difference on heat transfer coefficient have been investigated. The heat transfer coefficient increases with the decrease in number of fins placed on a flat plate with a fixed witdh until a fin spacing of S=12mm. After this value of fin spacing, however, it starts to decrease with the fin spacing. The ratio of the rate of radiation heat transfer to the total rate of heat transfer (natural convection + radiation) has been found about between12-14 %.