numerical investigation of heat transfer in a sintered porous fin in a channel flow with the aim of material determination

Extended surfaces are one of the most important approaches to increase the heat transfer rate. according to the fourier law, the heat transfer increases by increasing the contact surface of the body and fluid. in this study, the effect of heat transfer has been investigated on two sets of engineered porous fins, in which the balls with different materials are sintered together. the fluid flow through the channel was considered incompressible, steady, and three-dimensional. furthermore, fins made up of copper, aluminum and steel balls with 0.6 and 1.7 mm diameters in single-row, two-rows modes were studied, and the heat transfer and pressure drop through these fins were checked. moreover, the surface and volume analyses of the rigid and porous fins were provided. in addition, the effect of diameter and material of the balls on the temperature distribution and heat transfer coefficient has been examined in two cases of constant flux and constant temperature at the base. the results indicate that the steel fin has a different heat transfer behavior compared to other fins. the suitable material for the constant temperature and constant flux are copper and aluminum, respectively. also, it was found that the utilization of this type of connection would decrease the volume of the fin about 39% and increase the surrounding surface by 37%.