Real Life Fin ProblemBy Matthew Elverud and Roger Smith

Supplies•Base with resistance•Cap•8 Fins (washers)•Thermocouple

Introduction

Setup of Problem (Math)

Methods used:Lumped CapacitanceHorizontal Cylindrical Tube (Chp 9)

Problem – how much do fins help pipes cool and how can heat transfer be expedited?

Objective – How close is experimental data to calculated data.

Solution

Please see attached Matlab file for in-depth solution parameters.

Results(Measured)

Conclusions and Recommendations

• Fins assist with heat transfer• From calculations, the fins helped cool the pipe

6.653 time faster than without fins (please see note)

Note: Our ratio was off because of all the assumptions we had to make when doing the calculations. We couldn't find exact values for some of our properties (such as h of the air)so we were forced to approximate. Also when we did our experiment our fins weren't attached as well as they could have been and we failed to add in our contact resistance. Also the top of the tube was open which allowed heat and evaporated water to escape. The assumption was made that this was a 1-D problem when in fact it was a much more complex problem.

Appendix

• Heat and Mass Transfer 6th Edition• MatLab was used for calculations (see

attached file)