OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of using a fin
(extended surface) which are finned surface and pinned surface in improving the heat
transfer in forced convection.

THEORY

In heat transfer, there are 3 basic mechanisms, which are conduction,

convection, and radiation. Both conduction and convection require the presence of a
material medium. But they are different in that convection requires the presence of fluid
motion.
Convection is complicated by the fact that it involves fluid motion as well as heat
conduction. The fluid motion enhances heat transfer, since it brings hotter and cooler
chunks of fluid into contact, initiating higher rates of conduction at a greater number of
sites in a fluid. Therefore, the rate of heat transfer trough a fluid is much higher by
convection than it is by conduction. The higher the fluid velocity, the higher the rate of
heat transfers.

AIR
HEAT TRANSFER

FORCED CONVECTION

Heat transfer from an object can be improved by increasing the surface area in
contact with the air by adding fins or pins normal to the surface. This can be seen in
Newtons Law of cooling, which defines the convection heat transfer rate:

The effect of the surfaces can be demonstrated by comparing finned and pinned
surfaces with a flat plate under the same conditions of power flow.

APPARATUS

Finned
plate
Indicator
air flow

Duct
Air velocity
speed

Pinned
plate
Heater
power

Temperature probe

PROCEDURE

1) The heat exchangers were placed into the test duct and the ambient
temperatures (T) were recorded.
2) The heater power control is set to 75 W. The temperature is allowed to rise to 80
0

C, and the heater power control is adjusted to 20 W until steady reading.

3) The heated plate surface temperature (T s) is recorded. The fan speed control is
also set to 1.0 m/s on the thermal anemometer.
4) 5 minutes is allowed for the reading to stabilize and then (T s) is recorded.
5) The fan speed is adjusted to 2.0 m/s and then 2.5 m/s, and (T s) are recorded for
each speed.

RESULTS

TABLE A [FINNED PLATE]

Air Velocity [ m/s ]

Heat Temperature
(Ts ) [0C]

Ts - T
[0C]

h
[ W/(m. 0C) ]

62.5

38.5

7.20

1.0

48.8

24.8

11.17

2.0

36.0

12.0

23.08

2.5

31.9

7.9

35.06

TABLE B [PINNED PLATE]

Air Velocity [ m/s ]

Heat Temperature
(Ts ) [0C]

Ts - T
[0C]

h
[ W/(m. 0C) ]

62.5

38.5

15.01

1.0

49.2

25.2

22.94

2.0

36.9

12.9

44.81

2.5

31.7

7.7

75.07

SAMPLE OF CALCULATIONS:
1. Surface Area:
A) Finned Plate ,

A finned 9 L w Abase
plate

B) Pinned Plate,

A pinned 17
plate

DL
Abase
2

2. Convection Heat Transfer Coefficient:

Based on the Newtons Law of cooling:

We get ;

A)

Finned Plate @ 1.0 m/s

B) Pinned Plate @ 1.0 m/s

GRAPH