Thermal Stresses
Thermal Stresses
Thermal Stresses
Abstract — Paper presents a comparative study of the of ceramic heat exchangers will play in high-temperature heat
distribution of temperature and consequent induced thermal recovery. However, not many research papers addressed
stresses in circular fins of heat transfer equipment. The temperature distributions and thermal stresses in high-
numerical analysis of this coupled field problem has been temperature ceramic heat exchangers with annular fin [e.g. 7].
performed using the finite element method. The influence of
Silicon Carbide (SiC) have generally been preferred as high
different geometrical profiles viz., rectangular triangular and
Trapezoidal, on the temperature and stress distribution have temperature heat exchanger materials. Islamoglu [7] computed
been investigated. The results have been obtained for numerically by employing the finite element analysis package,
Aluminium Nitride, Cupronickel and Inconel MA754 the temperature and thermal stress distributions in high
materials of heat transfer fins. temperature ceramic annular fins with the steady-state
assumptions for the SiC material.
Index Terms—Finite element method, Circular fins, heat Development of metal alloys, e.g. Aluminium nitride (AlN),
transfer, thermal stress distributions. Cupronickel, Inconel MA754 [8], etc., are potential candidates
for high temperature heat exchanger applications. Inconel
I. INTRODUCTION MA754 is an oxide strengthened nickel-chromium superalloy.
A large number of engineering issues require high Its yttrium oxide dispersion imparts exceptional high
performance heat exchanging devises with progressively temperature strength and creep resistance. AlN has excellent
smaller in size, less weight and low cost [1]. The majority of thermal conductivity and has a lower thermal expansion
very high temperature heat recovery components involve coefficient than SiC. Cupronickel is an alloy containing 75%
gas-to-gas heat transfer, and circular fins are one of such Copper, 25% Nickel and trace amounts of Manganese. It also
heat transfer components that are employed extensively to finds application as heat exchanger material because of its
increase the heat transfer rates. Traditional industrial comparable thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance.
applications have included heat exchangers, control systems, Therefore, in this work the temperature distribution and
compressors and IC engines. Since the heat transfer thermal stresses developed in Inconel MA754, Cupronickel
coefficients are very low in gas-to-gas heat exchangers and AlN fins are being compared numerically using
thereby, suitable enhanced fin surface is necessary to improve commercially available finite element software. The results
the performance and low weight of heat exchangers. Aziz and are presented for various fin profiles.
Fang [2] have studied analytically the performance of an
annular fin with uniform thickness dissipating heat by II. ANALYSIS
convection to its surroundings using two sets of boundary The numerical analysis was been carried out for
conditions. computing the temperature and thermal stress distributions
The effects of temperature dependent heat exchanger in circular fins using commercially available finite element
coefficient on the efficiency of annual fins of rectangular, software ANSYS with Workbench 12.0. The custom system
triangular, concave parabolic and convex parabolic profiles option for thermal-strain analysis was selected. The numerical
have been investigated by Mokheimer [3]. Naphon [4] analysis was based on the following assumptions:
investigated analytically, the heat transfer characteristics and i) Steady-state heat flow,
the efficiency of the annular fins under dry-surface, partially ii) The materials are homogeneous and isotropic,
wet-surface and fully wet-surface conditions. Acosta-Iborra iii) There is no heat source,
and Campo [5] suggested that by employing modified Bessel iv) The convection heat transfer coefficient is the same all
function, for annular fins of uniform thickness, the over the surface,
approximate analytic temperature profiles and heat transfer v) The temperature of the surrounding fluid is uniform,
rates of good quality are easily obtainable without resorting vi) The thermal conductivity of the material is constant.
to the exact analytic temperature distribution and heat transfer
rate. McDonald [6] emphasizes, in future the significant role
© 2011 AMAE 114
DOI: 03.MES.2011.1.11
Poster Paper
Proc. of Int. Conf. on Advances in Mechanical Engineering 2011
from the Aluminium nitride fin was better because of the higher for the study tangential stress was minimum at the base of
temperature difference between the fin and the surroundings. the fin and attains a maximum value near the tip. The maximum
values were found to lie beyond r/L = 0.7 in trapezoidal and
triangular fins and beyond r/L = 0.5 in rectangular fins. For
the triangular profile of Cupronickel and Inconel MA754 the
maximum tangential stress was reached at the end of the fin.
The tangential stresses are lowest for trapezoidal profile
followed by rectangular and highest for triangular profile.
CONCLUSIONS
The temperature and radial stress fields of circular fins of
heat exchanger application have been studied for three types
of fin profiles and three materials. The temperature distribution
along the radial direction has been found to be higher in the
trapezoidal fin as compared to the triangular or rectangular
fin whereas, radial stress distribution exhibited lowest in
triangular fin for the same material type. Fins having
Aluminium nitride as material exhibited better heat transfer
Fig 3. Plots of radial thermal stress distribution along length of
fins.
characteristics.
Fig. 3 shows plots of the radial stresses along the mid
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