Transient heat transfer analysis of fins with variable surface area and temperature-dependent thermal conductivity using an integral transform technique

Abstract: This paper aims at the transient heat transfer analysis on extended surfaces with temperature-dependent thermal conductivity, constant internal heat generation, and five different geometries. The governing equations developed in this work consider the effects of the function that describes the shapes studied. To ensure a more effective thermal analysis, we investigated the impact of the fin's surface area and its arc length on the convection term, and the influence of the overall function of the fin profile affecting the volumetric rate of stored thermal energy. The imposed boundary conditions are adiabatic type on the tip of the fin and prescribed base temperature. A hybrid mathematical method, known as the Generalized Integral Transform Technique (GITT), was used to solve the cases presented here. The results obtained with GITT were firstly validated with FEM results, presenting excellent agreement between them, proving been a method suitable for handling non-linear problems. Physical effects on the temperature distribution and efficiency due to the thermo-geometric parameter (M), internal heat generation (Q), and variable thermal conductivity were investigated.The analysis shows that increasing M or decreasing Q results in a longer transient period, regardless of the geometry assessed. Besides, the efficiency if the increasing linear shape is higher than those of the rectangular fin for any parameter choice. Moreover, depending on the thermo-geometric value, the rectangular fin becomes more efficient among the remaining shapes. However, for higher values, those differences become undistinguished from each other, demonstrating a significant impact of the varying cross-sectional area and the fin surface area on the overall thermal analysis.