Experimental and numerical analysis of natural convection heat transfer coefficient of V-type fin configurations

In the present study, the natural convection heat transfer coefficient from V-type fin-arrays on a vertical base is investigated both experimentally and numerically. The CFD simulations are carried out using Fluent software. The investigated cases consist of different shapes of a 90-degree V-type fin which are broken into discrete pieces instead of being an integrated fin. The number and shape of pieces as well as the gap between them is studied for different cases. By scrutinizing the results, an optimum fin shape on a vertical base is determined. In addition, the optimum V-type fin array is introduced by studying the number of rows for the optimum fin shape. Finally, a correlation is presented which relates the Nusselt number with the modified Rayleigh number.