To: Dr.

Marquart
From: M. Potter, W. Gomez
Date: March 19, 2015
Re: Results of Experiment 3: Fin Effectiveness Experiment

Introduction
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effectiveness of rectangular fins in a heat
exchanger. This was accomplished by applying a voltage to heat a finned plate in a Hilton H351
Cross-Flow Heat Exchanger. Thermocouples were used to determine the temperature difference
between the plate and the ambient air in the heat exchanger at steady state for three different
applied voltages. The applied voltages were then used to calculate the experimental steady state
rate of convective cooling as well as the fin effectiveness. These experimental results were
compared to theoretical values using the measured temperature difference between the ambient
air and the plate as well as properties of the plate which were provided. Details of the
experimental setup and procedure can be found in the lab handout [1]. In this experiment, all
measured values of fin effectiveness were within 16% of the theoretical value and the average fin
effectiveness was within 2% of the theoretical value.

Results
The data collected for this experiment can be found in Appendix 1. The tolerances of the
measurements taken in this lab were determined to be 0.05 C for temperature measurements
and 1 V for applied voltage measurements. Temperature measurements were taken at steady
state for three different applied voltages. The experimental steady state rate of convective
cooling for the finned plate, , , was calculated for each applied voltage using Equation 1:

, =

where is the applied voltage and is the resistance. The convective cooling rate for a flat
plate of equal base area without fins was determined in a previous experiment whose results
were given in the lab handout [1].

(1)

The experimental results for convective cooling rate were compared to theoretical predictions
using plate dimensions and heat transfer coefficients given in the lab handout [1]. The heat
transfer coefficients were assumed to be constant because there was only a small variation in
ambient air temperature and plate temperature (0.4 C and 3.4 C respectively) throughout this
experiment. For the finned surface, the theoretical convective cooling rate, , , was calculated
using Equation 2 [2]:

, = ( tanh ( ) + )( )

(2)

where is the number of fins, is the convection coefficient, is the perimeter of the fin cross
section, is the thermal conductivity of the plate and fins, is the cross sectional area of the
fins, is the characteristic length of the fins, is the area of the plate not covered by fins,
is the temperature of the base, and is the temperature of the ambient air. The theoretical
convective cooling rate of the flat plate, , , was calculated using Equation 3.

, = ( )

(3)

For both experimental and theoretical calculations, the overall effectiveness, , of the finned
surface for a given temperature difference was then calculated using Equation 4:

(4)

where is the convective cooling rate for the finned surface and is the convective
cooling rate for the flat plate. Sample calculations for all experimental and theoretical values can
be found in Appendix 2. Theoretical and experimental values of fin effectiveness as a function
of temperature difference, , are compared in Table 1.

Table 1: Fin effectiveness as a function of temperature difference

(C)
1.5

Experimental Fin
Effectiveness
8.6

Theoretical Fin
Effectiveness
7.4

% Error
(%)
16

2.7

7.4

7.4

0.5

4.5

6.4

7.4

13

It can be seen that all experimental values of fin effectiveness were within 16% of the theoretical
value. In the experiment, the experimental fin effectiveness decreased with increased
temperature difference while fin effectiveness stays constant for theoretical calculations. The
average value of experimental fin effectiveness was 7.5 which is within 2% of the theoretical
value. This shows good agreement between experimental and theoretical values in this
experiment.

Conclusions
In this experiment, the overall effectiveness of a finned plate in a heat exchanger was
successfully determined. For this experiment, the fin effectiveness should be constant with
respect to temperature difference since both finned plate and flat plate convection cooling rates
are linearly related to temperature difference as seen in Equations 2 and 3. The average
experimental value of the fin effectiveness was within 2% of the theoretical value, validating the
experimental results. Individual measurements for fin effectiveness were found to have up to
16% error from theoretical predictions. The primary source of error was the tolerance in voltage
and temperature measurements. This error could be reduced by using voltmeters and
thermocouples with higher precision readings. While another source of this error is assumptions
of constant thermal conductivity and convection coefficients, these assumptions had little effect
on the experimental error because the temperatures of the air and plate only varied by 0.4 C and
3.4 C respectively. This small temperature variation means that the constant coefficient
assumptions were fairly good. Another way to improve the results would be to experimentally
determine the fin effectiveness at more values of .

Contributions by Group Members

M. Potter 50%
W. Gomez 50 %

References
[1] Fin Effectiveness Experiment Lab Handout, J. Marquart, Ohio Northern University, 2015.
[2] Heat and Mass Transfer: A Practical Approach, 4th ed., Yunus A. Cengel, McGraw-Hill,
2007.