Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Rectangular Cooling Channel With Airfoil Shaped Fins

Abstract This paper experimentally investigates heat transfer in a cooling passage with airfoil shaped fins for channel Reynolds numbers 10,000–40,000. This study uses airfoil shaped fins, instead of circular or oblong-shaped pins, for heat transfer augmentation. The airfoil shaped fins have more surface area than traditional pins. Assuming they both provide similar internal surface heat transfer coefficients, airfoil shaped fins will perform better than circular or oblong fins due to increased surface area. There is a need to obtain the heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop penalty in this cooling passage with airfoil shaped fins. Results are compared to the same rectangular cooling channel with smooth surfaces. The heat transfer can be enhanced 6–8 times while pressure drop is increased 70–90 times, as compared with the same channel with a smooth surface. With the fins significantly increasing the heat transfer area, three different methods are proposed for analyzing the heat transfer enhancement: (a) using the smooth channel area with the endwall temperature, (b) combining the total heat transfer area with the endwall temperature, and (c) coupling the total heat transfer area with the area weighted, average temperature including both the endwall and fin temperatures. Finally, compared directly to round pins, the airfoil shaped fins incur similar pressure penalties while providing slightly less heat transfer. The airfoil shaped fins benefit from a significant increase in the heat transfer area, a characteristic similar to more narrow strip fins.