Comparative Thermal Analysis of Fin of I.C. Engine with Extensions

Abstract

An air cooled I.C. engine releases heat to the atmosphere through the modes of forced convection, to facilitate this, fins are provided on the outer side of cylinder .the heat transfer rate depend on velocity of vehicle, fin geometry and the ambient temperature. Insufficient removal of heat form engine will lead to high thermal stresses and lower engine efficiency. Enhancement in geometry of fin can be improved the heat transfer rate from the engine. In this research, the heat transfer performance of fin of an internal combustion engine is analysed by design of fin with various extensions such as rectangular extension, trapezium extension, triangular extensions and circular segmental extensions. The heat transfer performance of fin with same geometry having various extensions and without extensions is compared. Fin with various extensions design with the help of APDL mechanical ANSYS 15.0 software. Analysis of fin performance done through the same software. In this thermal analysis, temperature variations w.r.t. distance at which heat flow occur through the fin is analysed. Extensions on the finned surfaces is used to increases the surface area of the fin in contact with the fluid flowing around it. So, as the surface area increase the more fluid contact to increase the rate of heat transfers from the base surface as compare to fin without the extensions provided to it. On comparison, trapezoidal extensions provide on fin gives the greatest heat transfer than that of other extensions having the same length and width attached to finned surface.