Heat Transfer Enhancement of Natural Convection and Development of a High-Performance Heat Transfer Plate

A new enhancing technique was developed for natural convection adjacent to a vertical, heated plate. In order to enhance the heat transfer, V-shaped plates of which the edges faced upstream, were attached to a vertical plate in a staggered layout. These plates work not only as an extended surface but also as a heat transfer promoter. The overall heat transfer coefficients of the above enhanced surface were measured and compared with a nontreated, flat surface and a conventional finned surface. The results show that the highest heat transfer performance achieved is for the experimental surface and that the heat transfer coefficient is 40% higher than that of a conventional finned surface with the same total surface area and fin height.