Heat Characteristics and Performance of Longitudinal Fin Exposed to Wet Air

Abstract

A numerical study of the performance of longitudinal fin exposed to wet air has been carried out using finite difference technique. The temperature distribution over the fin surface was determined by using a third-degree polynomial correlation for the relationship between dry bulb temperature and humidity ratio for the saturated air at relative humidity of (0, 25, 50 and 100)% and length of fin from (0.01 to 0.1)m. Also, fin efficiency, fin effectiveness and heat transfer have been calculated. The effect of the atmospheric pressure was also considered. The study showed that the fin effectiveness and fin efficiency of a fin in the case of fully wet fin was found to be smaller than those in the dry fin and the temperature gradient at the tip for a dry fin was greater than that for the wet fin. Key words:  Longitudinal fins, relative humidity, heat transfer