Experimental study on natural convection from vertical cylinders with perforated plate fins

Abstract

In this short communication, an experimental investigation on vertical cylinders with perforated plate fins under natural convection is conducted using sixteen finned cylinders of different configurations. Experiments are carried out to measure the heat dissipation from perforated-finned cylinders for various perforation diameters, fin numbers, and temperature differences between the base and surroundings. Based on the experimental results, correlations to predict the Nusselt number are proposed. Utilizing the proposed correlation, a thermal model capable of predicting the thermal performance of the perforated-finned cylinder with a prediction error within 10% is developed. By applying this thermal model, it is shown that the thermal performance of vertical cylinders with plate fins can be improved by 13% through perforation.