NATURAL-CONVECTION HEAT-TRANSFER FROM ARRAYS OF ISOTHERMAL TRIANGULAR FINS IN AIR

Measurements of the heat transfer to air by natural convection from arrays of isothermal triangular fins on a vertical base plate are reported for several array geometries, for a large range of Rayleigh number, and for two orientations (vertical fins and horizontal fins). The data are believed to be the first available for this important geometry. A single equation is provided that correlates the measured Nusselt numbers for the vertical orientation with an rms error of 4.8 percent. The horizontal fin orientation was shown to have inferior heat transfer performance.