Technique for measuring the heat transfer performance of a finned tube

A theoretical investigation of the transient cooling of a finned-tubed assembly has been made with a view to extending the 'lumped-capacity'technique to this geometry for evaluating heat transfer performance. A numerical study of a typical fin geometry has shown that the fin efficiency in the transient case exceeds that for steady state and that a 'uniform' value is achieved after a very short time. For a low cooling rate the fin-efficiency value approximates to that for steady state, which can be used for the evaluation of the heat transfer coefficient.