Optimal design and analysis of airfoil radiator fins based on weakly compressible turbulence

Abstract

In order to further improve the heat dissipation performance of the forced air-cooled radiator in the simplest and most efficient way, this paper firstly proposes an airfoil optimization design of radiator fin structure. Then, based on the weakly compressible turbulence theory, a multi-physics coupling finite element model (FEM) that can highly restore actual phenomena is constructed. The temperature field, velocity field, and pressure field in the radiator are analyzed and verified qualitatively and quantitatively by this FEM. Finally, a comprehensive comparative analysis of the cooling power, average pressure loss, and cooling power per unit volume of traditional radiators and airfoil radiators are carried out in terms of the number of fins and the airflow rate. The results show that the performance of the airfoil radiator is significantly better than the traditional radiator: the cooling power is increased by at least 8.14%, the average pressure loss is greatly reduced, at least 31.15%, and the cooling power per unit volume is steadily increased by 15.92%. It can be seen that the optimized design can take into account both efficiency and practicality. The analysis methods and conclusions presented in the article have not only direct guiding significance for solving practical problems, but also have universal reference value for future research.

Keywords:

• Airfoil
• CFD
• compressible turbulence
• finite element
• optimal design
• radiator

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (51305458).