Experimental study on convection heat transfer of a single fin duct with pulsated airflow

With the recent advancements in the electronics industry, thinner systems with greater functionality are on demand. Natural convection air-cooling is the method of choice for many low power electronics applications due to cost, availability, and reliability. However, its performance is very limited due to buoyancy dependent weak flow. Therefore, there is a need for further enhancement of natural convection. An experimental study is performed to understand the synthetic jet heat transfer over a single fin surface. The primary focus is for the understanding of the local temperatures and heat transfer coefficients on the fin surface. We used microscopic infrared temperature measurement technique to understand local temperatures leading to local convective cooling. Heat transfer is correlated to pulsation frequency, air velocity, duct width, flow angle, fin spacing, and jet orifice size. The results show that heat transfer can be improved by increasing air velocity and pulse rate. Smaller fin spacing can cause increase of heat transfer coefficient. Airflow impinging on one fin with angle can enhance heat transfer in the local area, but not for the fin duct as a whole. Strong heat transfer is observed close to the inlet and exit of the duct.