Heat transfer from extended surfaces:

Heat dissipation from machine components or cooling is an important application of heat transfer. For
example cooling of IC engine keeps the piston, and valves operational. Overheated engine shuts down
due to thermal expansion of material, else it may lead to failure of other parts connected to the engine.
In engineering practice cooling invariably is done using convection. In this chapter we are concerned
with the simple newton's law of cooling shown below and further depth will be provided on the forced
and natural convection in the upcoming chapters of our course.

q convection =h⋅A⋅(T 1−T ∞ )

From the above equation for a specified surface area and constant temperature, convective heat transfer
can be increased by increasing the heat transfer or decreasing the ambient temperature. When these two
has reached its limits; that is, heat transfer coefficient cannot be increased and the ambient temperature
is fairly constant, the surface area can be increased by the use of extended surfaces.

An extended surface or fin is a component used to increase the convective heat transfer from the
surface. Fins are commonly found on air-cooled engines (motorcycles, portable generators, etc.),
electronic equipment (CPUs), etc.

Figure 3.1: A typical fin used to cool the component.

Thermal analysis of fins

The extended surface (fin) is a protrusion from the base surface, and is in contact with the fluid that
convects the heat away. A typical 1D fin is shown below:

For an extended surface conduction and convection heat transfer is given below:

dT
Qconduction =−k⋅A⋅
dx

Qconvection =h⋅A⋅(T −T ∞ )
under steady state condition the rate of conduction is equal to the rate of convection. Consider a small
differential region as shown below, we are going to equate the conduction and convection heat transfer
for this region.

For the differential volume of length Δ x the energy balance is :

Energy conducted from the left face = Energy conducted from the right face + energy lost due to
convection.

q x =q x +Δ x +h⋅P⋅(T −T ∞ )
by rearranging the terms in the above equation we get:

(q x+ Δ x −q x )+h⋅P⋅(T −T ∞ )=0

2
d T
k⋅A 2
+h⋅P⋅(T −T ∞ )=0
dx

d 2 T h⋅P
2
+ ⋅(T −T ∞ )=0
dx k⋅A

2 h⋅P
if m = and (T −T ∞)=θ we get
k⋅A
2
d θ
2
+m2⋅θ=0
dx

The solution for the above equation needs the boundary conditions; three cases can be realized:
1. Case A: fin is of finite length and has convection at the tip.
2. Case B: fin is of finite length and is insulated at the tip.
3. Case C: fin is of finite length with specified temperature at the tip.
4. Case D: infinitely long fin; such that the temperature at the tip is same as ambient temperature

Fin effectiveness:

Fin effectiveness is a measure of how effectively a fin can enhance heat transfer. It is the ratio of heat
transfer that occurs from the surface with fin and the heat transfer without the fin.
Q fin
ϵ=
Q

Fin effectiveness also depends on the boundary conditions and thus we have :
For case B, adiabatic boundary condition:

√ hPkA⋅tanh (ml)⋅(T b −T ∞ )
ϵf =
h⋅A⋅(T b−T ∞ )

√ hPkA⋅tanh (ml)
ϵf =
h⋅A
=
√ hP
KA
⋅tanh(ml )

For an infinitely long fin tanh (ml)=1 therefore we have

ϵf =
√ hP
kA

In order to enhance heat transfer, fin efficiency should be greater than 1 (In case fin efficiency <1, the
fin would have no purpose as it would serve as an insulator instead). However fin efficiency > 2 is
considered unjustifiable because of diminishing returns as fin length increases.

Fin effectiveness:

The fin efficiency is defined as the ratio of the energy transferred through a real fin to that
transferred through an ideal fin. An ideal fin is thought to be one made of a perfect or infinite
conductor material. A perfect conductor has an infinite thermal conductivity so that the
entire fin is at the base material temperature.

Qreal √ hPkA⋅tanh(ml)⋅(T b−T ∞ )

η= =
Q ideal h⋅(P⋅L)⋅(T b−T ∞ )

η=
kA
hP √
⋅tanh(ml)⋅(θb )
L⋅(θ b )

tanh(ml)
η=
m⋅L
The above equation can be understood with the following formulation:

1
Q= =(T avg −T ∞ )
η⋅h⋅A f

This equation can be rewritten to give thermal resistance (electrical analogy) for fins as shown below:
1
Rfin =
η⋅h⋅A f

Overall fin efficiency:

It is a common practice to provide a surface with multiple fins, in the form of an array of fins.

For an array of fins we have the the total base area as A b , the surface area of a single fin as A f ,
the total area including base area and total finned surface as A t and the total number of fins is given
by N f .

The total heat transferred from a surface with a array of fins is given by:

Qt =Q b + N f⋅Qf =hA b (T b−T ∞ )+ N f⋅ηf h A f (T b−T ∞ )

N f⋅A f
Qt =h A t [1− (1−ηf )](T b−T ∞ )=ηO h A t (T b−T ∞ )
At

Now we can define the overall fin efficiency:

N f⋅A f
ηO =1− ( 1−ηf )
At

Similarly, for an array of fins the thermal resistance is given by:

1
Rt ,O=
ηO⋅h⋅A t