Free Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement by Combining the Cavity Inclination and Twin Fin Orientation in Air-Filled Cavities

Abstract

Passive thermal management is an established and cost-effective way of cooling electronic devices. This paper aims to investigate the potential heat transfer enhancement by combining the influence of cavity inclination angle and twin fin orientation for an air-filled cavity. The SIMPLE algorithm is used to solve the governing conservation equations, which are discretized using the finite volume method. The thermal field and internal fluid flow are calculated for a range of Rayleigh numbers (10⁴ ≤ Ra ≤ 5 × 10⁵), cavity inclination angle (0° ≤ φ ≤ 60°), fin orientation (−60° ≤ γ_a and γ_b ≤ 60°), and fin positions (0.375 ≤ L_a ≤ 0.75, 0.25 ≤ L_b ≤ 0.625). Outcomes indicate that increasing Rayleigh number leads to enhancement in the intensity of the internal fluid flow in the cavity. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate is enhanced by positively orienting fins for the optimal cavity inclination angle φ = 15°. Moreover, installing the plate fins on the upper part of the left hot sidewall improves the heat transfer characteristics. Combining fin orientation and cavity inclination shows potential heat transfer enhancement, which achieves its maximum for a cavity inclination φ = 15° and twin fins with positive orientations of γ_a = γ_b = 60°. The heat transfer is enhanced by up to 15.32% compared to the reference case. These findings can help design more efficient air-based cooling systems in electronics as well as other applications.