Assignment on heat transfer-ii

Name: Lailatul Nehar

Roll no: 132074

Section: ME13B

Course no: ME-3201

Topic: Introduction of fin, heat pipe, heat exchanger

 Abstract
Heat transfer equipments are found to be useful in wide range of
industries. They can be broadly defined as equipments used for transfer
of heat from a hot medium to cold medium. There are various kinds of
heat equipments such as fin , heat pipe , heat exchanger.

Objectives
Recognize what is fin, heat pipe and heat exchanger.

Difference between them.

Key words

Thermal conductivity ,k : Thermal conductivity of a material can be

defined as the rate of heat transfer through a unit thickness of the
material per unit area per unit temperature difference. The thermal
conductivity of a material is a measure of the ability of the material to
conduct heat.

Thermal diffusivity: The material property that appears in the transient

heat conduction analysis is the thermal diffusivity , which represents
how fast heat diffuses through the material that can be defined as,
Heat conducted k
= =
Heat stored C p

If the term C p (heat capacity of a material) increases then the

diffusivity of a material decreases or vice versa.
The difference between THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY AND THERMAL
DIFFUSIVITY:

Conductivity indicates the rate at which heat flow through a material

when one side is hot and other side is cold. On the other hand
diffusivity indicates how long it takes for a temperature pulse to
transverse a certain thickness when heat source is briefly applied to one
side of a material.

So that the thermal conductivity represents how well a material can

conduct heat whereas thermal diffusivity indicates how fast a material
can diffuse heat if there presents any temperature difference.

Evaporation: Evaporation occurs at the liquid vapor interface when the

vapor pressure is less than the saturation pressure of the liquid at a
given temperature.

Boiling : Boiling occurs at the solid liquid interface when a liquid

brought into contact with a surface maintained a temperature above
the saturation temperature of the liquid.

Condensation: Condensation occurs when the temperature of a vapor

is reduced below its saturation temperature.

Fin
In the heat transfer, fin are surfaces that extended from an object to
increase the rate of heat transfer to or from the environment by
increasing convection. The amount of convection , conduction or
radiation of an object determines the amount of heat it transfers.
Increasing the convection heat transfer co-efficient or increasing the
surface area of the object increases the heat transfer. Thus adding a fin
to an object, increases the surface area and increases the heat transfer.

Fig : Fin

Fins are most commonly used in heat exchanging device such as

radiator cars ,computer cpu heatsinks ,hydrogen fuel cell etc.

HEAT PIPE

A heat pipe is a heat transfer device that combines the principles of

both thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage
the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces.

A heat pipe is a close evaporator-condenser system consisting of a

sealed , hollow tube whose inside walls are lined with a capillary
structure or wick. Thermodynamic working fluid, with substantial vaor
pressure a the desiring operating temperature , saturates the pores of
the wick in a state of equilibrium between liquid and vapor. When heat
is applied to the heat pipe , the liquid in the wick heats and evaporates.
As the evaporating fluid films the heat pipe hollow center , it diffuses
throughout the length. Condenser of vapor occur whenever the
temperature is slightly below that of the evaporation area.As it
condenses, the vapor gives up the heat it acquired during evaporation.
The effective high thermal conductance helps maintain near constant
temperatures along the entire length of the pipe.

Attaching a heat sink to a potion of the heat pipe makes condensation

take place at this portion of the heat transfer and establishes a vapor
flow pattern. Capillary action within the wick returns the condensate
to the evaporator (heat source) and completes a operating cycle.

Fig : Heat pipe

Heat pipes are one of the effective procedure to transfer thermal

energy from one point to another point. It is applied in spacecraft,
computer system, solar thermal, permafrost cooling, ventilation heat
recovery, nuclear power conversion etc.

Heat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between a solid
object and a fluid or between two or more fluids. This fluid may be
separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing or they may be direct
contact. The heat exchangers are widely used in space heating,
refrigeration, air conditioning , power stations , petrochemical plants
etc.

There are some conditions that heat exchanger have to satisfy. Those
are there should be two kinds of fluid at different temperature and
there are not mixed with each other.

Fig: Heat exchanger

Comparison between fin, heat
pipe and heat exchanger
They all are heat transfer equipments. But there are some difference
between them.

Fin is an extended surface from an object that increases the heat

transfer by convection whereas heat pipes transfer thermal energy by
evaporation and conduction. But a heat pipe can use as fin when the
source temperature is lower than the saturation of the fluid then the
fluid wont boil and transfer the by conduction.

On the other hand heat exchangers transfer heat from one fluid to
another where the two fluids cannot mix. A heat pipe cannot use as a
heat exchanger because there should be a fixed fluid that also should
be in contact to the source in case of heat pipe. But heat exchanger
can flow heat and diffuses it to the surface without any contact with
the source.

Heat pipes use in any stationary device or electronics device but heat
exchangers use in any complex i.e in any mechanical devices.

THANK YOU