Determination of Optimum Design Parameters

for the Thermal Performance of Porous Fins of

Various Shapes Using Swarm Intelligence
Synopsis Report Submitted in

Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

TUHIN DESHAMUKHYA
14-3-02-109

Under the Supervision of

Dr. Dipankar Bhanja
Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering

National Institute of Technology Silchar
2019
Introduction

With an aim to facilitate better heat transfer from mechanical and electronic equipments and sophisticated
devices, extensive research throughout the world has been going at a steady pace. One such recent
achievement in the field of heat transfer is the introduction of the porous fins. In this project, different

FIGURE 1 Schematic of a rectangular porous fin with convective tip

cases of porous fins under different conditions and fin volumes have been investigated. Over the last one
decade there has been a very limited effort to study the multivariable optimization of porous fins. Mostly
available literatures related to the optimization studies of porous fins report only about traditional
optimization approaches where a significant parameter was varied keeping other parameters constant.
There has not been considerable effort to optimize all the important variables simultaneously thereby
compromising the actual scenario. A fair idea about the actual maximum heat transfer rate cannot be
obtained unless all the important variables are considered in the optimization study. With increase in the
number of variables, the complexity of the search space increases manifolds and thus it becomes
exceedingly difficult for the traditional methods to reach near optimum points. Needless to mention here
that the dangers of getting trapped in local points of these noisy landscapes are also higher with traditional
approaches especially while dealing with highly nonlinear equations as obtained in the current
derivations. Thus in the current project, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Firefly Algorithm (FA) and
Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) are selected to obtain the actual heat transfer rate by optimizing
the significant variables of porous fins of various profiles like rectangular, triangular and convex
geometry that result in enhancing the heat transfer rate. Moreover, in all the prior work related to porous
fins the researchers have considered the fin tip to be insulated. Though insulated tip conditions are
justified in case of long fins but for a finite length fin, the heat transfer from tip cannot be neglected as the
difference in tip temperature and the base temperature will not be much significant, which is why the
authors in the present study got marked variation in results between the temperature distribution of both
the cases. Thus the present analysis has been done considering two different conditions of fin tip to
provide a more realistic analysis of porous fins. Again in all the previous investigations, only the effective
thermal conductivity was varied while the dependency of temperature on the individual solid and fluid
conductivities was not considered. But in reality solid and fluid conductivities actually varies with
temperature. Therefore in one of the present studies a linear variation of thermal conductivities of solid
(fin material) and fluid (air) with temperature has also been considered. Under certain conditions, fin
dissipates heat to the surrounding by convection accompanied by radiation modes of heat transfer which
has been considered in a separate study. To obtain the temperature distribution analytical techniques [18-
26] like Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM), Differential transformation method (DTM) and

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Homotomy Perturbation method (HPM) are used and to get the optimized values of parameters under a
specific volume constraint, the three metaheuristic algorithms are used. The optimization studies done in
the present project will serve as a comparative study between the three powerful metaheuristic algorithms
to understand the efficiency of these algorithms in handling applications involving non linear equations of
this magnitude.

Literature Survey

Fins [1,2] are considered as an integral part of any heat transfer device and it is justified by their ability to
help in the heat transfer enhancement. The study of fins demands a thorough understanding of the heat
and mass transfer [3,4] processes and various phenomena of fluid mechanics [5]. Heat transfer through
convection is directly proportional to the co-efficient of convection, surface area and the temperature
difference between the surface and the surrounding. In order to improve the rate of heat transfer the most
feasible option is to increase the surface area for convection, for which fins are used in most of the
equipment.

Over the years significant development in this area has introduced the concept of porous fins. Porous
fins by the virtue of their higher convective heat transfer co-efficient are considered as better options than
their solid counterparts. It is a well-established fact that for the same weight porous fins facilitate better
heat transfer as compared to its solid counterparts. The logic behind making a fin porous is to increase the
effective surface area of convection through pores. The convective co-efficient compensates for the loss
of solid thermal conductivity thus resulting in improved heat transfer. The presence of pores enhances the
convective heat transfer co-efficient and the combined result of solid-fluid conductivity improves the heat
transfer. Porous media has found successful application in a number of engineering applications such as
heat pipes, solar energy, heat exchangers and so on. The transfer of heat between equipments and the
surrounding via porous fins involves all the three modes of heat transfer such as conduction, convection
and radiation. A number of works can be cited where analytical and numerical investigations have been
carried out [1-17].

The non linear equations obtained in these applications demand meta-heuristic algorithms [27-51] to
find the global optimized values of the parameters. Lately the powerful nature inspired global
optimization techniques such as GSA, PSO, FA and similar bio inspired stochastic algorithms have been
used in a number of applications. Recently a number of works have been performed on PSO related to the
area of heat transfer.

Application scopes of Porous Fins

 In many devices such as electronic components, compressors, transformers, refrigerators, boiler

super-heater tubes, condenser coils, air cooled engines, etc. the capacity of a surface to lose heat
to the surroundings is not enough.
 In aircrafts, space crafts and other areas where weight is a major constraint.

Research gaps

From the thorough literature survey, the following key research gaps have been pointed out:

1) Metaheuristic optimization has not been performed yet in the area of porous fins

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 2) Individual variation of solid and fluid thermal conductivities have never been considered in
previous studies
3) Porous fins with convective tip have been ignored in previous works in order to minimize the
complexities in derivation.

Objectives of the studies in the current thesis

The objectives of the current thesis can be broadly divided under two heads:

i) Analytical study of the thermal performance of porous fins of various profiles under different
conditions.
ii) Rigorous optimization analyses of various profiles of porous fins under different constraints and
conditions.

Bridging the gaps

1. Thermal analysis of porous fins considering both insulated as well as convective tip conditions
has been performed.
2. Linear variation of solid and fluid thermal conductivities on the temperature has been considered.
3. All the important porous fin parameters have been optimized using metaheuristic algorithms.
4. Optimization studies of various porous fin profiles (rectangular, convex, triangular) have been
carried out
5. Comparative analysis has been made among PSO, FA and GSA to understand the efficiency of
these algorithms in handling non-linear equations encountered in the analysis of porous fins.

Methodology

The fulfillment of the above objectives requires systematic and step by step approach to be taken.
Following are some methodologies that have been planned so far:

i) Obtaining the governing equation from the energy balance equation.

ii) Solving the governing differential equations by semi analytical techniques such as Adomian
Decomposition Method (ADM) and Differential Transformation Methods (DTM).
iii) Verification of the analytical results with the help of numerical schemes.
iv) Optimization of the design parameters using Swarm Intelligence.

Organization of the Thesis

Chapter 1: This chapter introduces the idea of this thesis to the readers in a nut shell. Starting from
the concepts of Swarm intelligence, analytical techniques, fins, porous fins and constructal theory,
this thesis is an amalgamation of different areas of science and engineering.
Chapter 2: This chapter carries out a thorough scan of literatures dedicated to the research done in
this area in the last 15 years. The chapter ends with highlighting the research gaps, motivation,
objectives and novelty of this thesis.
Chapter 3: This chapter crosses the superficial layer to penetrate deep inside the concepts of
metaheuristic optimization. The author intends to touch the intuitive imagination of readers by

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 helping them visualize the underlying physics behind swarm intelligence, and especially PSO, FA
and GSA.
Chapter 4: This chapter reports all the important findings related to the thermal analysis and
optimization of rectangular porous fins of various profiles under different conditions.
Chapter 5: Thermal analyses and metaheuristic optimization of two tapered profiles namely convex
and triangular profiles have been carried out.
Chapter 6: Here in this chapter, a step porous fin has been studied where along with the thermal
analysis optimization has also been performed using PSO, FA and GSA.
Chapter 7: Temperature distribution as well as efficiency of a constructal porous T-shaped fin has
been carried out followed by optimization of important variables that leads to a high heat transfer
rate.
Chapter 8: Finally concluding remarks about the findings (both from thermal analyses as well as
optimization studies) have been arranged in bulleted format followed by future scopes of this project.

Mathematical formulation

Figure 2 shows a rectangular porous fin of length L, width W and thickness t exposed to a convective
environment at constant temperature . The fin is attached to a vertical isothermal wall of uniform
temperature . Being porous in nature, the fin surface allows fluid to penetrate through the pores that
enhances the convective heat transfer. Due to removal of solid material, effective thermal conductivity of
the porous fin decreases which reduces the heat conduction along the fin length. But this fall in heat
conduction is compensated by the increase in effective surface area of convection. A temperature
dependent internal heat generation within the fin material is also considered in the present study.
Moreover, analytical prediction has also been made for both cases by considering convective fin tip as
well as insulated tip. Now to analyze a porous fin, some assumptions are required to simplify the solution
and limit the design constraints. The assumptions considered by the authors in the current work are:
 Porous medium is homogeneous, isotropic and saturated with a single phase fluid and the physical
properties of solid as well as fluid (except thermal conductivity) are considered invariable.
Boussinesq approximation is also been employed for the present analysis.
 Darcy formulation is used to simulate the interaction between the porous medium and fluid and both
the mediums are locally thermodynamic equilibrium in the domain.
 There is no contact resistance at the fin base and the temperature variation inside the fin is one-
dimensional as the transverse Biot number is very small.

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 Porous media

t
V(x)

Tb
∆x x
W

FIGURE 2: Schematic diagram of a rectangular straight porous fin

As heat conduction is occured solely in the longitudinal direction, the governing differential equation of
the present problem can be represented [37] as:

(1)
where mass flow rate of the fluid passing through fin pores is
(2)
where the fluid velocity is estimated by Darcy’s law [8,9]

(3)
The effective thermal conductivity of the porous fin can be obtained from following expression:
(4)
Thermal conductivity of air and the solid material are considered to vary linearly with the temperature as

(5)

where are the coefficient of variable thermal conductivity for air and the solid material
respectively.
It is assumed that heat generation in the fin varies linearly with temperature as Eq. (6)

(6)
In order to express Eq.(1) in non-dimensional form, the following dimensionless parameters have been
introduced as follows:

(7a)

(7b)

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 (7c)

(7d)
Using Eqs. (2)- (7), Eq. (1) can be expressed as

(8)
In the present work, as stated earlier, both the fin tip conditions (insulated and convective) are considered.
Thus to determine temperature distribution, boundary conditions of Eq. (8) can be written as follows:
(9a)

(9b)

Solution methodology
Adomian Decomposition Method(ADM)
Adomian decomposition method is considered as a powerful analytical method for solving non-linear
differential equations. Developed by George Adomian [38-40], the decomposition method has found its
place in a number of ace research works in various fields of engineering to solve the non-linearity in the
governing equations. Implementation of ADM has yielded successful results in a number of cases
involving fins of various profiles [41-43]. ADM is known for its ability to reduce the computational work
without compromising the accuracy of the numerical solution, which makes it a suitable choice while
dealing with nonlinear equations. The method is to decompose the unknown function into an infinite sum
of its components and determine recursively through successive iterations.
Writing Eq. (8) in operator form,

(10)

where, is the linear second order differential operator which is invertible. Now, applying

inverse operator on both sides of the Eq. (10) yields

(11)

where is the dimensionless tip temperature and is the temperature gradient (H) at the
fin tip which can be obtained from boundary condition expressed in Eq. (9b). Replacing the non-linear
terms of Eqn. (11) by Adomian polynomials , the following recursive relation is obtained

(12)
Where the Adomian polynomials are

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 (13)

The Adomian polynomials for nonlinear terms can be expressed as

(14)

(15)

(16)
The first term of the recursive relation of Eqn. (12) is

(17)

By putting j=0, 1, … , in Eqn. (12), the following temperature components are obtained

(18)

(19)

From boundary condition 9(b)

(20)
The overall temperature distribution is given by the following expression
(21)

For both the insulated and convective fin tip cases, the temperature distributions is a function of unknown
parameter . By incorporating the expression of temperature distribution into the boundary conditions
9(a) and employing the Newton-Raphson method, the value of the unknown parameter is determined and
subsequently, the temperature distribution in the fin is obtained from Eq. (21).

Results and Discussions

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8 analytical cum optimization studies have been performed using three robust metaheuristic algorithms.
The summarized results of these individual studies are discussed below:

Study 1: Temperature Distribution in a Rectangular Fin without Variable Properties and

Internal Heat Generation Considering Insulated as well as Convective Tip Conditions.

A thermal analysis of a rectangular porous fin without heat generation was studied considering both
insulated as well as convective tip conditions. Temperature distribution in both copper as well as
Aluminum fins was studied. The temperature profiles are reported in Fig3.

FIGURE 3 Temperature Distribution curves

Findings:

The significant findings of this study are as follows:

i) Fins with convective tip transfers more heat as compared to their insulated counterparts.
ii) Aluminium porous fin maintains more temperature throughout as compared to their Copper
counterpart.
iii) As Nu increases, the convective heat transfer dominates and transfer more heat from the fin body.
iv) With decreasing thickness, the temperature along the fin drops drastically as with less thickness
the surface area for convection as well as conduction along the body drops

Study 2: Thermal Analysis of A Rectangular Fin With Variable Properties And Internal
Heat Generation Considering Insulated As Well As Convective Tip Conditions.

Next this study was enriched by including variable properties and internal heat generation.

For the first time variation of individual fluid and solid thermal conductivities with temperature has been
considered in the analysis of porous fins.

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 The problem is derived using ADM and DTM and a comparison has been made between these
two methods. For generating the numerical results, first the discretised equations are obtained from Eq.
(7) using the Taylor’s series central difference scheme and subsequently the difference equations are
solved using the Gauss–Seidel iterative procedure, satisfying a desired convergence criterion of 10 −6.
From Figs. 4 and 5, it has been seen that the temperature distribution in the fin, considering convective tip
is always lower than that of the insulated tip as mentioned earlier. Fig. 4 shows that for both the cases, the
temperature distribution in porous fins is found to be lower than its solid counterpart. It is seen from
Figure 5a that at lower Nusselt number value, higher temperature distribution is obtained. This is because
lower values of Nusselt number signifies lower values of convective heat transfer coefficient between the
fin and the surrounding air, i.e, reduced heat transfer rate from the fin and this results in higher fin surface
temperature. With the increase in the thermal conductivity ratio with constant porosity, the fin becomes
more conductive, which raises the temperature in the fin, as clearly evident from Fig. 5b.

1.0
convective fin tip
insulated fin tip

0.9 solid fin (Ra-0, Da=0, =0)

0.8 =0.4 =0.1;

=0.8 Ta=300K;


Tb=390K;
kR,a=9000;
0.7 g=0.008K
-1

q0=100K;
Nu=20;
-1
f=0.0028K ;
5
0.6 porous fin (Ra=10 , Da=0.0001)
s=0.001K
-1

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

X
FIGURE 4 Comparison between solid and porous fin for both convective and insulated fin tip conditions
and effect of porosity in temperature distribution

1.00 1.00
5
Ra=10 ;=0.4;=0.1;Da=0.0001; convective fin tip
Ta=300K;Tb=390K;kR,a=9000;g=0.008K
-1 insulated fin tip
0.95 0.96
-1 -1
q0=100;f=0.0028K ;s=0.001K 5
Ra=10 ;=0.4;
0.92 =0.1;Da=0.0001;
0.90 Ta=300K;Tb=390K;

0.88
0.85 kR,a=15000


0.84
0.80
kR,a=9000
Nu=20

Nu=20;
0.80 g=0.008K
-1

0.75
Nu=30

q0=100;
0.76 f=0.0028K ;
-1
convective fin tip
0.70 insulated fin tip s=0.001K
-1

0.72
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
X X
(a) (b)
FIGURE 5 Variation of dimensionless temperature distribution for both insulated and convective fin tips
with respect to variation of (a) Nusselt number (b) thermal conductivity ratio

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Optimum heat transfer rate with the variation of aspect ratio

The optimization study of the porous fin is done by considering the fin volume as a constraint and
studying the variation of actual heat transfer rate with the dimensionless parameter . For each plot (as
seen in Fig 6), there is an optimum value of at which the heat transfer rate from the fin attains a
maximum value. It is seen from the figure that at lower values of porosity, the porous fin transfers more
heat than the corresponding solid fin. But as the porosity is increased, the heat transfer rate decreases and
beyond a particular value of porosity, depending upon the other thermophysical parameters, the heat
transfer rate from the porous fin may becomes less than the solid fin. In Table 1, the actual heat transfer
rate and efficiency of porous fins under optimized condition is shown for different values each for
Rayleigh Number and thermal conductivity ratio, under both insulated and convective end conditions. In
most of the earlier researches it has been noticed that tip of the fin is considered insulated for the
simplicity in analysis. But if the thickness of the fin is not too small and if the fin is short then heat
transfer from the tip of the fin plays a significant role. The difference in heat transfer efficiency is clearly
noticed in this table.

Table 1 Effect of and kR on the optimum design parameters

Maximum heat transfer Increase Efficiency at the

Parameter Optimum value
( ) in optimum point

Convectiv
Convective insulated (%) Convective insulated insulated
e
105 9000 255.319 228.997 10.31 0.03085 0.03240 0.46235 0.46618
104
9000 174.124 147.814 15.11 0.02292 0.02398 0.58173 0.58712
105 12000 288.850 251.617 12.89 0.02612 0.02847 0.46634 0.46887
104 12000 192.775 158.268 17.9 0.01906 0.02159 0.58650 0.59030
105 15000 319.788 265.807 16.88 0.02287 0.02508 0.46958 0.47975
104
15000 209.652 165.897 20.87 0.01628 0.01868 0.58922 0.59597

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 350
solid fin(Ra=0;Da=0;=0) insulated fin tip
convective fin tip

300 porous(=0.4) kR=10000;Ta=300K;

-1
Tb=390K;g=0.008K ;
3
q0=100W/m ;U=1000;
250 -1
s=0.0K ;f=0.0K
-1

Qa
200

porous(=0.7)
150
5
porous fin(Ra=10 ;Da=0.0001

points of maximum heat transfer

100
0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15


FIGURE 6 Optimum heat transfer rate as a function of for solid and porous fins

Optimization using metaheuristic algorithms

One inherent drawback experienced while optimizing the objective function by Lagrange Multiplier
method is that the optimized value depends greatly on the chosen initial guess values. What it implies is
that for a greater part of a domain to be scanned, the algorithm has to be run with different guess values
which become cumbersome with high dimensional problems. Moreover this deterministic algorithm
shows tendency of getting stuck in local optimum points around the initial points which limits its ability
to reach better points. One more limitation of Lagrange multipliers is in dealing with inequality
constraints. Therefore, it becomes very difficult to play with the variable having a range of values rather
than a fixed value. Indeed, when facing inequality constraints, the use of Lagrange multipliers introduces
a disjunction since, at any given point, a constrained is either active (having a positive multiplier or a
negative multiplier depending on the problem) or inactive hence enforcing a zero value of the multiplier.
To subdue these drawbacks an effort has been made to optimize the objective functions of porous fins
with Swarm intelligence.

Here in this thesis PSO, GSA and FA have been used in all the chapters to optimize porous fins of various
profiles under various conditions. The convergence plots of the heat transfer rates are shown in fig 7 and
the optimized heat transfer rates are tabulated in Table 3

(a) (b)
FIGURE 7 Convergence plots of three metaheuristic algorithms considering both (a) Insulated tip condition; (b)
Convective tip condition

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Table 3 Actual heat transfer rate obtained for both the cases by PSO, FA and GSA and their respective

computational time

Tip condition Parameters/tip Actual heat transfer rates with different algorithms
conditions PSO FA GSA
Insulated 1427.94 1422.54 1052.50
1437.32 1444.13 1162.64
Convective 1855.20 1856.56 1623.38
1867.02 1868 1636.70
Computational Time (in Insulated 56.93 27.69 20.58
mins) Convective 120.59 35.92 26.67

Findings:

i) There is a very little effect of variable thermal conductivity of fluid on the fin performance.
However, variation of thermal performance considering temperature dependent thermal
conductivity of fin material is significant.
ii) Efficiency of solid fin is higher than that of porous fins and fin efficiency decreases with the
increase in porosity.
iii) When convective fin tip is considered, the actual heat transfer rate becomes more but
simultaneously the ideal heat transfer rate also increases, which ultimately declines the fin
efficiency.
iv) PSO and FA converged to nearly similar optimal points but FA took less computational effort to
reach the optimum value. GSA converged faster than these two algorithms at relatively inferior
points.
v) Higher computational time is required to optimize fins with convective tip end as compared to
fins with insulated ends. This can be credited to the additional computational complexity that
arises in case of convective end tip fins.

Study 3: Prediction of Optimum Design Variables for Maximum Heat Transfer through a
Rectangular Porous Fin Using Particle Swarm Optimization.

Carrying this work forward, a rectangular short porous fin with convective tip has been optimized with
metaheuristic approach. DTM is used to derive the fin equation. The analysis was performed at 3 different
tip temperatures. No heat generation is considered. The results of optimization are furnished below:

Table 4 Optimized heat transfer rates at three different tip temperatures for two different Ra values by PSO, FA
and GSA
Algorithms

PSO 163.85 238.88 483.76 1017.92 1049.45 2827.96

FA 163.85 238.88 483.76 1017.92 1049.45 2827.96
GSA 152.58 232.88 469.26 971.09 1028.33 2574.30

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Findings:

1) The actual heat transfer increases marginally with the increase in Ra for low tip temperatures
whereas the change is somewhat appreciable for high tip temperature.
2) Fin transfers more heat when the tip temperatures are high.
3) Actual heat transfer rate is increased by increasing Nu and Da. However, with the increase in
heat transfer rate decreases due to mainly conduction loss.

Study 4 Heat dissipation through a porous fin exposed to both convection as well as
radiation heat transfer

In this study both convective and radiative modes of heat dissipations are considered. A linear variation of
internal heat generation with temperature is also considered in this case. To show the effect of radiation
and to compare the results with convective heat transfer, two different studies are performed.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 7 Convergence plots of objective functions (actual heat transfer rates) for both the cases considering
(a) Aluminium and (b) Copper fins

From the convergence plots (Fig 8) the percentage increase of heat transfer rate with combined
radiation and convection for both the fin materials compared to only convection are as follows: (i)
Copper fins: 1.47% (by PSO and FA) and (ii) Aluminium fins: 4.9% (by PSO) and 5.3% (by FA).

Table 5 Optimized heat transfer rates of Aluminium and copper porous fins by PSO, FA and GSA
Material Cases PSO FA GSA
Aluminium Study I 1427.94 1422.54 1052.67
Study II 1497.98 1497.98 1195.07
Copper Study I 2134.39 2134.39 1822.43
Study II 2165.78 2165.76 1970.78
Computationa Study I 56.91 27.69 20.58
l Time (min) Study II 62.03 29.92 22.58

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Findings:

1. FA has proved superior to PSO in fetching the global optimum values in this current study in
terms of convergence speed. Thus FA can be used as an effective method in solving similar
constrained optimization problems related to this area satisfying a number of inequality and
equality constraints.

2. The study has been conducted for copper and Aluminium porous fins and both cases of
convection as well as radiation accompanied by convection have been dealt with. The effect of fin
volume on maximum heat transfer rate for the current conditions has been shown for 3 different
volumes. In the case of simultaneous radiative as well as convective heat transfer, more heat is
transferred from the fin for all volumes.

3. The actual rate of heat transfer, irrespective of the fin material and mode of heat transfer,
increases as we go on increasing the fin volume. But the rate of increase in the heat transfer rate
falls as we move to higher volumes i.e., the gradient becomes less at higher volumes.

Study 5: Optimization of porous fins of convex and triangular profiles using PSO, FA and
GSA

With an attempt to study the optimum setting of parameters that leads to a higher heat transfer rate
through porous fins of convex as well as triangular profiles along with rectangular profile, a comparative
study among three different profiles have been carried out. After determining the temperature distribution
and efficiency, optimization is carried out.

FIGURE 8 Schematic of (a) Convex and (b) Triangular porous fin

Optimization analysis

The current section is concerned with finding the optimum heat transfer rate through these porous fin
profiles. Three metaheuristic algorithms have been used to handle the non linear governing equations
obtained from the energy balance equation of the profiles. The objective function, constraint and the
design variables are discussed in details below:

Objective function, constraints and design variables

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The positions of the randomly distributed agents (which in case of PSO are the positions of the birds,
hypothetical masses in case of GSA and fireflies in case of FA) represent potential solutions to the
problem at hand. But the quality of a solution is gauged by evaluating its value with respect to the
objective function.

The objective function above has to be optimized by satisfying a constraint which is directly linked
with the design. The dimensionless volume which is a combination of Nu and is chosen as the equality
constraint in this problem.
where,

(22)
where the inequality constraint has to be satisfied.

The constraints imposed on the variables of the problem are shown in Table 6

Table 6 Lower and upper values of the design variables

Variables Range
Lower Upper
0.2 0.4

0.01 0.1
10 15

The objectives of this study are three folds; First, to achieve better heat transfer rate through the fins by
optimizing the important design variables secondly, to lay a framework for the optimization of porous
fins of these profiles using metaheuristic algorithms and to compare the optimized heat transfer rates with
rectangular fins. The convergence plots are shown in Fig 9.

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 (a) (b)
FIGURE 9 Convergence plots of a) Triangular and b) Convex porous fin

Table 7 A comparative analysis of triangular and convex profiles with rectangular porous fins on the basis of heat
transfer ability as well as computational complexity

Profiles Algorithm Maximum Computational Best heat Minimum recorded time

heat transfer time (in min) transfer rate (min)
rate (Qa) (Qa)
Convex PSO 1620.52 44.73
GSA 1653.88 18.35 1653.88 42.35
FA 1620.21 24.06
Triangular PSO 2243.303 93.56
GSA 2196.101 44.34 2335.77 51.44
FA 2335.77 59.08
Rectangular PSO 1427.94 56.92
GSA 1052.50 20.58 1427.94 31.58
FA 1422.54 27.70

Findings:
i) At a specific fin volume, the heat transferred through the triangular fins is maximum followed by
convex and rectangular profiles.

ii) For a fixed volume, the optimized thickness of triangular fin attains maximum value.

iii) The algorithms have performed reasonably well in terms of computational efficiency. While PSO and
FA have converged to nearby optimum values, the computational effort required by PSO to reach
optimum points is much higher than FA and GSA. Maximum effort was required to optimize the
triangular profile owing to the highly nonlinear nature of the equation.

iv) The current results show that under the prescribed conditions, the porosity of the fins which is a
deciding factor that regulates the convective heat transfer from the fins, should be around 20%

Study 6: Optimization of Step Porous Fin Using Swarm Intelligence

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A major share of heat gets transferred through the fins up to a certain length from the base. Thus the logic
behind using step fin (Fig 10) is to reduce the thickness after a certain point till the tip. This approach
serves two folded purpose: First material is saved and secondly, the weight of the assembly gets lowered.
Here in this study a step porous fin has been optimized to enhance the heat transfer rate.

FIGURE 10 A step porous fin

The thermal analysis of the step fin in the previous section shows an influence of the length and thickness

ratios on the heat transfer rate. Thus in this section six variables (including and ) have been
optimized to achieve an enhanced heat transfer rate. The analysis has been performed obeying a volume

(U) constraint as a function of Nu, , and as follows:

(23)

where is the constraint function.

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 FIGURE 11 Convergence plots of heat transfer rates using PSO, FA and GSA

Here in this application, the three algorithms have converged nearly almost around the same regions of
the fitness space as seen from Table 8 and Fig. 11. The computational time required for the algorithms to
reach the optimum points is far more (619.33mins by PSO, 435.65 mins by FA and 166.45mins by GSA) than
what was seen in the previous studies. This is obvious as unlike in rectangular or convex profiles here the
temperature distribution is the overall distribution of both the parts which increased the additional load on
the algorithm.

Table 8: Optimized values of the design variables and the corresponding heat transfer rates and computational time
Optimization Computational
methods Ra Da Nu Time (in mins)

PSO 0.2 0.05 1000000 0.001 5.37 0.45 0.3 4149.30 619.33

FA 0.2 0.05 1000000 0.001 5 0.3 0.3 4145.054 435.65

GSA 0.2 0.047 1000000 0.001 5 0.5 0.3 4142.42 166.45

Study 7: Optimization of constructal T-Shaped porous fin using Swarm Intelligence

FIGURE 12 Constructal T shaped porous fin

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The constructal theory works on the basic principle of providing branching to the low resistive links,
thereby increasing or improving the performance of flow. A constructal shaped porous fin has been
optimized in a convective medium where the variables are in the range:

Porosity increases the heat transfer rate of the fins by increasing the surface area of convection through
the pores. In Table 7.1, a comparative analysis has been done between constructal T shaped solid fin and
porous fins of various porosities to understand the role played by porosity in enhancing the heat transfer
rate. At low porosity, the fin transfers better heat than its solid counterpart. An increase of 8.02% is
obtained when the fin is 20% porous. The heat transfer rates however drop with increasing the porosity
values due to the drop in effective thermal conductivity due to excess removal of solid material.
Table 9 Porous vs Solid T-shaped fins: Comparison of heat transfer rates

Fin type Ra Da Qa

Porous 105 0.0001 0. 547.47

Fin 2
0. 392.30
4
0. 280.01
6
0. 164.13
8
Solid Fin 0 0 0 503.37

Fetching suboptimal points of and

In constructal T shaped fins, the thickness ratio (thickness of flange to stem) as well as length ratio
(length of flange to the length of stem) also play a crucial role along with the usual five parameters (that
has been considered in the preceding studies) which should be considered in the analysis. During initial
trial runs, it has been observed that computational time required to perform a single iteration of T-shaped
fins is much higher as compared to tapered or rectangular profiles. Now with two added variables, the
search space will spread to two more dimensions which will increase the computational time further.
Since PSO and FA have performed well in reporting good values in all the studies mentioned in previous
chapters, so in order to save computational time an optimization study has been done by considering the
volume constraint using these two algorithms only. The aim of this particular experiment is to obtain near
optimum values of thickness and length ratios and use these as inputs in the next analysis. Both the
algorithms have converged at around the same optimum point. The convergence pattern of the algorithms
has been shown in Fig. 13.

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 FIGURE 13 Convergence plots of heat transfer rate and the corresponding variables

Computing heat transfer rates at three constant volumes

In this section, an attempt has been made to determine the heat transfer rates at three different volumes.
As a rule of thumb in formulating an optimization problem, the number of design variables should be as
few as possible in order to increase the efficacy and robustness of the optimization process. Since
computational time required to optimize the differential equation in a 7 dimensional space is very high as
evident from the above analysis, so and has been considered constants (0.36 and 0.5 respectively)
thereby reducing the number of variables to five. This approach of reducing a few design variables by
treating them as constants from prior experience, experiments or simulation results is a cost effective
perspective of looking into an optimization problem. In problems such as optimization of T shaped
porous fins, where the computational task is huge, this strategy of minimizing additional complexity can
help designers to reach a robust solution within a stipulated time frame.
The dimensionless volume can be represented as follows:

(24)

As seen in Fig. 14, the heat transfer rates through the fin within the permissible dimensionless volume
are computed at three different volumes. The intention here is to analyze the effect of volume on the heat
transfer rate. The details about the converged values of the variables at three different volumes are
computed in Table 10.

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 (a) (b) (c)
FIGURE 14 Convergence plots of heat transfer rates for (a) U = 500 (b) U = 1000 and (c) U = 1500

The heat transfer rate increases by 0.81% (by using PSO) and 0.83% (by FA) as the fin volume is
increased from 500 to 1000 and 0.19% (by PSO) and 0.4% (by FA) as the volume increases from 1000 to
1500. The inference drawn from this finding is that though heat transfer rate through porous fins is
directly related to fin volume, but the rate at which heat transfer rate increases becomes less as higher fin
volumes are selected.
TABLE 10 Optimized values of the design variables of three volumes using PSO, FA and GSA
U = 500 U = 1000 U = 1500
Parameters
PSO FA GSA PSO FA GSA PSO FA GSA
0.2 0.2 0.23 0.20 0.2 0.26 0.2 0.2 0.2
0.17 0.19 0.22 0.23 0.17 0.23 0.15 0.15 0.09
Da 0.001 0.001 0.000731 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001
Ra 106 106 907167 106 106 106 106 106 106
Nu 9.10 9.77 10.58 15 12.91 15 15 15 12.23

Findings

1) The optimization of constructal fins demands huge computational time due to the fact that overall heat
transfer rate through the fin is a cumulative effect of heat transfer rate through stem and flange. Thus a
scheme has been shown in this study to reduce the computational time by reducing the number of
variables from seven to five.

2) Heat transfer rate obtained by PSO is highest, followed by FA and GSA.

Publications

Synopsis Report, Nit Silchar Page 22

 International Journals (SCI/SCIE)

1. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, A modified firefly algorithm to maximize heat
dissipation of a rectangular porous fin in heat exchangers exposed to both convective and radiative
environment, Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering (SAGE),2019, DOI:
10.1177/0954408919861244.
2. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Saheera Azmi Hazarika, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Optimization of
design variables for determining the maximum heat transfer through a rectangular porous fin by
Particle Swarm Optimization, Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology (Springer), 2018, 32-
9, pp 4495–4502.
3. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Saheera Azmi Hazarika, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Analytical
investigation on performance and optimum design analysis of porous fin with internal heat
generation considering both insulated and convective tip conditions, Communications in Non-linear
Sciences (Elsevier), 2019, 67, pp 351-365.
4. Saheera Hazarika, Tuhin Deshamukhya, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Thermal analysis of
a constructal T-shaped porous fin with simultaneous heat and mass transfer. Chinese Journal of
Chemical Engineering, 2017, 25, pp 1121-1136. 
5. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Application of metaheuristic algorithms in
optimum thermal design analysis of a rectangular porous fin subjected to both insulated and
convective tip conditions, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal
of Power and Energy (SAGE),(Communicated).
6. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Design optimization of Porous Fins of
Different Profiles Using Swarm Intelligence Algorithms, Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical
Engineering (SAGE),(Communicated).
7. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Optimization of Constructal T-shaped Porous
Fins under Convective environment Using Swarm Intelligence Algorithms, Proceedings Of The
Institution Of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal Of Aerospace Engineering (SAGE),
(Communicated).

International Conference (Scopus)

1. Tuhin Deshamukhya, Dipankar Bhanja, Sujit Nath, Ambarish Maji, Gautam Choubey, Analytical
study of temperature distribution in a rectangular porous fin considering both insulated and
convective tip, International Conference on Functional Materials, Characterization, Solid State
Physics, Power, Thermal and Combustion Energy (FCSPTC)-2017, AIP conference
proceedings, 1859: 020031-1-6.

Synopsis Report, Nit Silchar Page 23

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