Analysis of Convective Heat Transfer for Laminar Flow in a Pin Fins Array

In this paper, convective heat transfer for fully developed laminar flow in a pin fins array using a two-dimensional periodic model of porous structure has been studied. A macroscopically uniform flow is assumed to pass through an array of circular pin fins placed regularly in an infinite space. Due to periodicity of the model, only one structural unit is taken for a calculation domain to resolve an entire domain of pin fins array. In the structural unit, pin fins surface are maintained at constant temperature, and Continuity, Navier-Stokes and energy equations are solved numerically to describe the microscopic velocity and temperature fields at a pore scale. The numerical results thus obtained are integrated over the structural unit to evaluate the dimensionless macroscopic pressure gradient and the thermal diffusivity tensors. Finally, the obtained results compared with available numerical and experimental data.