Natural and Forced Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement for Solid Cylinders with Different Geometrical Shapes

Abstract

Enhancing heat transfer for both natural and forced convection is a common issue for any heat transfer process. Experimental studies have been carried out for six different geometrical shapes of solid bars for natural convection and forced convection with four different air velocities while keeping the same perimeter and length of the solid bars, which means the lateral surface area of the bars is the same. Results reveal that both the natural and forced convective heat transfer characteristics are greatly influenced by the geometrical shape in terms of Nusselt number (Nu), heat transfer coefficient (h), and heat transfer rate (q). In addition, isosceles and cylindrical shape geometry contribute to the lowest and highest heat transfer, respectively. As well, it is obtained from the results that convective heat transfer characteristics are directly related to the cross-sectional area, even if the perimeters are the same. Moreover, among the different geometrical shapes, the isosceles and hexagonal shapes take the shortest and longest duration to attain the steady-state condition in the conductive heat transfer process. The convective heat transfer characteristics are well-validated, with available results for both natural and forced convection heat transfer.