An experimental method for evaluating the heat transfer coefficient of liquid-cooled short pin fins using infrared thermography

The aim of this research is to evaluate the convective heat transfer coefficient of liquid cooled short pin fins by means of the infrared thermography. An experimental apparatus was set-up to analyze single, in-line and staggered array configurations of short pin fins. In this work the attention is focused on single pins having different shapes: circular, square, triangular and rhomboidal. The infrared thermography is used to indirectly measure the lateral pin temperature by observing the upper surface temperature of radially heated pins, these are placed in a test section chamber equipped with a Zinc Selenide infrared window. Flow visualizations by means of ink tracers are also carried out to relate the thermal behavior with the flow field. Regressions by the Zukauskas correlation were performed for each shape and new coefficients were carried out; a comparison among the different pin geometries underlines a better thermal exchange for the triangular and rhomboidal pins. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.