HEAT TRANSFER

COURSE PROJECT

TOPIC – Thermal Analysis of Fins Having Different

Shapes Using ANSYS.

Submitted By-

Name Roll No
Samiksha Patil 61
Sanjana Patil 62
Tanaya Patil 63
Vaibhav Patil 64
Aditya Pawar 65

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 INDEX
SR TITLE PAGE
NO NO
1 ABSTRACT 3

2 INTRODUCTION 4

3 TYPES OF FINS CONSIDERED 5

4 WORKING CONDITIONS 6

6 PROCESS 7

7 RECTANGULAR FIN 9

8 TRIANGULAR FIN 11

9 TRAPEZOIDAL FIN 13

10 RESULTS 15

11 CONCLUSIONS 16

12 REFERANCES 17

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ABSTRACT :

Convective heat transfer between a surface and the surrounding

has been a major issue and a topic of study for long time. In this
project, the heat transfer performance of fin is analysed by using
ANSYS workbench for the design of fin with various configuration
such as rectangular, trapezoidal, triangular and cylindrical
configuration. The heat transfer performance of fin with same base
temperature having various geometry is compared. In this thermal
analysis, Aluminium was used as the base metal for the fin material
and for various configurations. Fin of various configurations are
designed with the help of CATIA V5 software. Thermal analysis of
fins is done using the software ANSYS 16.0.
The objective of this study is to examine the effect of fin shape
on the thermal performance. Various parameters of fin performance
like effectiveness, efficiency and total heat flux are compared for
different shape of fins. A particular working condition is considered
and performance of different shaped fins are found out by the use of
ANSYS software. Both 2D and 3D analysis of fins are considered and
various solutions like temperature, heat flux, directional heat flux and
reaction probe for total heat loss are found out.

3
INTRODUCTION :

Heat transfer using the extended surface is very important in

many fields including industries, heat exchangers, power plant
sectors, engine cooling, transformers and many others. Heat transfer
rate from any surface can be increased either by increasing the surface
area in contact with environment or by increasing the convection
coefficient of the surrounding fluid. But it is not feasible to increase
the convection coefficient, so we go for extended surface which
increase the overall surface of the body in contact with the
environment. Extended surface are known as fins and this is used to
increase heat transfer rate. In order to cool the system, fins are
provided on the surface of the system. By doing thermal analysis of
the fins, it is helpful to know the heat dissipation and rate of heat
transfer in different types of fins. We know that by increasing the
surface area, we can increase the heat dissipation rate of this process
but it is not always feasible to have large surface area of a body, so
fins are provided on the surface of the system to increase the heat
transfer.
There are various types of fins like rectangular fins, triangular
fins, parabolic fins, circular fins with rectangular profile, pin fins , pin
fins of triangular and parabolic profile etc. These different types are
used for different purposes. Each type have different characteristics
and different performance even if they work under the same working
condition. Only the fin profile is considered while designing the
model and base plate is not considered because the meshing becomes
complex due to the inclusion of base plate. The types fins that are
considered for the analysis are given in the table below with their
general information:

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 TYPES OF FINS CONSIDERED :

SR FIN TYPE FIN

NO

1 Straight Rectangular

2 Straight Triangular

4 Trapezoidal

WORKING CONDITIONS :
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 Following conditions are considered for the comparison of
performances of different shaped fins. These conditions are
considered such that they correspond to practical conditions.

SR NO CONDITION VALUES
1. Length of Fin (L) 5 cm

2. Thickness of Fin (b) 1 cm

3. Width of Fin (w) 15 cm

4. Ambient Temperature (T 0 ¿ 25 C

5. Base Temperature (T b ¿ 200 C

6. Convection Coefficient (h) w

15 m2 k
7. Thermal Conductivity of Material (k) w
205 mk

PROCESS :
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1) Body is created in CATIA and saved in .stp form. Then it is
imported to ANSYS Workbench.

2) Engineering data is modified according to the requirement.

3) Meshing is done, required boundary conditions are added, the

required solutions are added.
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4) Solutions are obtained by solving the problem.

1)Straight Rectangular Fin

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 The profile of this type of fin is rectangular. This is the most
basic type of fin. The model of the fin can also be created in the
ANSYS but here CATIA mode is used. Three solutions are found out
using the ANSYS workbench: Temperature, Total Heat Flux and
Reaction Probe. Reaction Probe tells us about the total heat lost. Base
side is set at the base temperature and conditions of convections are
applied at the other five faces. The conditions used are already
mentioned.

The base temperature is 200 C, which is also the maximum

temperature and the minimum temperature observed in this case is
195.74 C. Minimum temperature is observed at the free end of the fin.
The temperature distribution is shown the image above. The case
which gives minimum temperature at the free end can be said to be
the best system for heat transfer. It can be seen that maximum
temperatures are observed close to the base of the fin. The surface
area of the fin can be easily found out by multiplying the perimeter of
rectangular profile by the length of the fin.
Following is the result for the total heat flux for the rectangular
fin case. The solution gives the maximum and minimum total heat
flux across the profile of fin. The directional heat can also be found
out but it is not necessary in this type of study.

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 The next solution is the Reaction Probe which gives the total
heat loss. For the rectangular profile the heat loss is found out to be
45.229 Watt. The more the heat loss, more will be the fin
effectiveness.

45.22
Therefore, effectiveness of fin = 3.9375 = 11.48

45.22
Therefore, efficiency of fin = 50.948 x 100 = 88.75 %

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2)Triangular Fin
The profile of this type of fin is triangular. The area which is
perpendicular to conduction heat transfer changes continuously from
base side to the tip of the fin. This variation in area can be easily
found out by some mathematical calculations. As compared to the
rectangular profile fin this fin has less area of contact with the
surrounding. This can affect the performance of the fin. The
temperature profile for this type of fin is as follows :

We can see that the base temperature is maximum and its value
is 200 C. The temperature decreases gradually as expected as we
move from the base to the tip of the fin. The minimum temperature
observed here is 193.41 C which is less as compared to that of
rectangular fin. The following picture shows the total heat flux for the
triangular fin. The observed trend is somewhat irregular, we get the
minimum total heat flux at the tip of the fin and the maximum total
heat flux is observed at the corners of the base side.
The next solution is the total heat lost to the surrounding by the
fin. In this case, the total heat lost is 40.141 Watt. This value is less as
compared to the heat loss by rectangular profile fin. Also the
maximum and minimum total flux values differ from that of the

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rectangular profile fin. Using these all parameters the performance of
fins can be compared easily.

40.141
Therefore, Effectiveness = 3.9375 = 10.19

40.141
Therefore, Efficiency = 47.315 x 100 = 84.83 %

3)Trapezoidal Fin
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 The profile of this type of fin is trapezoidal. The area
perpendicular to the direction of conduction heat flow also varies in
this type of fin. Also, the variation in area can be found out. The base
thickness of this fin is 1 centimetre and the thickness at the tip is
considered to be 0.5 centimetre. This fin has less area of contact with
the surrounding as compared to the rectangular fin but has more area
of contact as compared to the triangular profile fin. The variation in
temperature for this type of fin is shown in the following picture :

The maximum temperature is 200 C at the base. The minimum

temperature is observed at the tip and its value is 195.29 C. The
gradual variation can be observed by the changes in the colour band
from the given picture. The next image shows the total heat flux for
the trapezoidal profile fin. The maximum value is observed at the base
side of the fin and the minimum value is observed at the tip of the fin.
The variation in the value of total heat flux can be observed in the
image. The next solution is of reaction probe which gives the total
heat loss from the fin. In this case the amount of the heat lost is
42.665 Watts. Which is more as compared to the triangular one and
less as compared to the rectangular profile fin.

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 42.665
Therefore, Effectiveness = 3.9375 = 10.83

42.665
Therefore, Efficiency = 49.589 x 100 = 86.03 %

RESULTS :

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 The various results that we have found out for each
fin are enlisted below :

SR
N PARAMETERS RECTANGULA TRIANGULAR TRAPEZOIDAL
O R

1. Temperature 195.74 to 200 193.41 to 200 195.29 to 200

Range (C)

2. Total Heat Flow 45.229 40.141 42.665

(W)

3. Effectiveness 11.48 10.19 10.83

4. Efficiency (%) 88.75 84.83 86.03

CONCLUSIONS :

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 I. From the results that we have found out, the max
efficiency is observed for Rectangular Fin and least
efficiency is observed for Triangular Fin and the
efficiency of trapezoidal fin is between these two.

II. The maximum heat loss occurs for the Rectangular

Fin profile. Then Trapezoidal Fin loses more heat
and least amount of heat is released by Triangular
Fin.

III. The maximum effectiveness is of Rectangular Fin

and minimum effectiveness is of Triangular Fin and
the effectiveness of Trapezoidal Fin is in between
these two.

IV. Minimum temperature is observed for Triangular

Fin.

V. From these results, it can be said that Rectangular

Fin is more efficient as compared to the other two.

REFERENCES :
1) Heat and Mass Transfer by Cengel and Ghajar.
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2)https://www.ansys.com/academic/free-student-
products/support-resources.

3)Thermal Analysis of Engine Cylinder Fins by

Using ANSYS by M V Sagar, N Suresh, IJERT.org

4)Introduction to Heat Transfer by Incropera and

Dewitt.

5)https://sites.ualberta.ca/~wmoussa/AnsysTutorial/

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