An experimental study of forced convection heat transfer from in-line pin fin arrays

Forced convection/radiation heat transfer characteristics of three in-line pin fin arrays was investigated. Experiments were performed to study the effect of angle of array inclination with respect to incoming fluid flow, fin tip clearance, fin diameter to interfin spacing ratio and fluid flow rate on heat transfer from the arrays. Measurements of velocity and pressure fields and smoke visualization were used to study the fluid flow characteristics. The radiation heat transfer component was determined analytically. The heat transfer measurements were used to develop a correlation to predict array averaged Nusselt number for the fin arrays investigated. Higher heat transfer rates were measured in the absence of fin tip clearance, high fluid flow rate, low fin diameter to interfin spacing ratio and array inclination of about 45