Natural convection heat transfer from a thermal heat source located in a vertical plate fin

Abstract

A steady state conjugate conduction-convection investigation is performed on vertical plate fin in which a small heat source is located. Heat from the fin surface is transferred to the surroundings by laminar natural convection. The governing equations for the problem are the heat conduction equation for the fin and the boundary layer equations, which are continuity, momentum and energy equations, for the fluid. A computer program is written by using the finite difference method in order to solve the governing equations which are nonlinear and coupled. The best location of the heat source in the fin for maximum heat transfer rate depends on two parameters which are the conduction-convection parameter and the Prandtl number. The obtained results have shown that for the fin with large conduction-convection parameter, a heat source location for maximum heat transfer rate exists.