Effect of radiation in a radial heat sink under natural convection

A radial heat sink was investigated, considering both natural convection and radiation. Experiments were performed to validate numerical results and a close agreement was found. The effect of radiation on total heat transfer was examined by varying emissivity, and it was found that the maximum radiation contribution was 27%. The radial heat sink was optimized to maximize thermal performance. The thermal performance was enhanced by 12.3% while the mass increased by 20%. Radiation (emissivity) had a significant effect on the optimum long fin length when only thermal performance was considered. The average thermal resistance decreased by 8.7% for the optimized model with the same mass as the reference model, and the effect of radiation on total heat transfer was greater than the effect of natural convection.