Study of efficiency and optimized dimensions of segmented fins of different cross-section shapes

Heat recovery of heat exchangers with gas as one of the streams depend on the use of segmented finned tubes to compensate for the inherently low heat transfer coefficient. Segmented fins are of great practical importance in compact heat exchangers, finned tubes, waste heat recovery boilers, etc. For a given fin weight, the fin can dissipate various quantities of heat depending on its shape and geometry. Optimizing the fin, namely finding the shape that would dissipate the maximum heat for a given weight, is an important requirement in fin design. In the paper the temperature profile and the efficiency of four different shapes of segmented fins (rectangular, hyperbolic and parabolic) with variable heat transfer coefficient h, are determined by solving numerically the relevant governing differential equations, it's found that the parabolic fin has the best performance among the four examined shapes, although it has more manufacturing problems