Abstract
The use of heat exchangers on extended surfaces has obtained high importance in the last years due to their high implementation in industrial processes, computer systems, refrigerators, electronic equipment, etc. It implies the use of computer technology to have a better comprehension of the phenomena that involve heat transfer in finned surfaces to design new prototypes with high efficiency. There are lots of parameters to consider when designing fins such as their geometry and the type of material making the design highly complex. Also, a selection of adequate fins requires knowledge of temperature distributions through them, which will depend on the properties of the fin material. In this article, it is presented the study of the energy transfer and effectiveness in Extended Surfaces using an educational graphical user interface developed in Matlab as a pedagogical strategy to promote the significant learning in engineering. The program uses the most important experimental correlations reported in the literature for solving real problems. The systems studied were Straight Rectangular Fins, Straight Triangular Fins, Cylindrical Pin Fins, and Straight Parabolic Fins, all the cases with air as refrigerant and Aluminum, Copper, Iron, and Stainless Steel as the fin working materials. Three case studies were made, the total heat transfer of the fins as a function of air velocity for different geometric configurations and materials of the fins to see the effect of the natural and forced convection, the effect of convection in the efficiency of the fins, and the effectiveness as a function of thermal conductivity of the fins for the geometrical configurations mentioned above. It was found that the configuration with the highest removal of heat was the straight rectangular fin. The cylindrical fin presented the highest efficiency, and the best working material was the copper.
