ITEMS

modern scholarly publishers in the finest tradition

Journals

	Search

Journal of Enhanced Heat Transfer

Theory and Application in High Performance Heat and Mass Transfer

ISSN for PRINT: 1065-5131

Institutional price:	$577.00
Issues per year:	4

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2004, Volume11

232 pages

DOI: 10.1615/JEnhHeatTransf.v11.i4

Issue price - $138.00

Experimental Investigation of Convection Heat Transfer in Mini-Fin Structures and Sintered Porous Media

Pei-Xue Jiang
Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering, Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Rui-Na Xu
Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering, Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, and Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Meng Li
Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

ABSTRACT

Forced convection heat transfer of air and water in bronze and pure copper mini-fin structures and a sintered bronze porous media were investigated experimentally. The mini-fin dimensions were 0.7 mm × 0.2 mm, 0.8 mm × 0.2 mm, 0.8 mm × 0.4 mm, and 0.8 mm × 0.8 mm. The diameters of the sintered porous media were 0.5—0.71 mm. The tests investigated the effects of fluid velocity, mini-fin dimensions and materials, and fluid properties on the convection heat transfer and heat transfer enhancement. The results showed that the mini-fin structures greatly increased the heat transfer coefficient. For the tested conditions the convection heat transfer coefficient was increased 10-24 fold for water and 16-40 fold for air in the mini-fin structures, compared with an empty plate channel. The friction factor and flow resistance in the mini-fin structure with higher porosity were much less than in the other mini-fin structures and in the sintered porous media. The heat transfer coefficients in the mini-fin structure were larger than in the sintered porous plate channel with the same porosity and material and similar dimensions. The mini-fin structure with W_w = 0.8 mm and W_c = 0.4 mm had the best overall thermal/hydraulic performance.