Experimental study of natural convection on metal fiber sintered sheet

In this study, experimental investigation of the natural convective heat transfer on sheet sintered with metal fiber at different inclination angles is presented. The effects of inclination angle, porosity, fiber diameter, Rayleigh number and thermal conductivity of metal fiber on natural convective heat transfer performance are discussed. It is founded that an optimal inclination angle (60°) exists which maximize the Nu number and the effect of inclination angle on the heat transfer performance for metal fiber sintered sheet is less significant than for the smooth sheet. The average Nusselt number firstly increases and then decreases with increasing of fiber diameter and porosity. The heat transfer rate in vertical orientation shows better performance than that in horizontal orientation. The metal fiber thermal conductivity has considerable influence on the heat transfer rate and the heat transfer rate appreciably increases with increasing of the metal fiber thermal conductivity. A heat transfer correlation for the present study is developed and the deviation between the predicted results and the experimental data is within ±7.5%.