DESIGN OF FINS TO MAXIMIZE THE HEAT TRANSFER RATE FROM THE ENGINE CYLINDER

An SI engine is one of the pivotal parts of every automobile.SI engines operate on the principle of combustion of the fuel. The heat energy produced due to this phenomenon is partly utilized in producing the useful work. A part of the thermal energy is dissipated to the atmosphere in the form of conduction and convection. Due to the internal combustion, engine material experiences sharp temperature changes. In order to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the engine, heat dissipation has to be carried out quickly and in a very efficient way. Surface Area of the engine exposed to the atmosphere is critical for the heat dissipation. Extended surfaces called fins help in increasing the surface area thereby help in taking away the heat produced in the combustion chamber to the atmosphere. Due to the advent of new alloys, heat transfer characteristics of the fins have improved vastly without compromising on the other structural parameters. Material, Geometry, pitch and the height of the fins are the parameters which can be altered in order to optimize the transfer of heat from the engine. Here in the project, analysis of the thermal properties of the engine cylinder by varying material of fins, the geometry of fins, number of fins, Size of the fins at different operational speeds is done. Standard materials used for commercial engine fins are Aluminium alloy A204 of thermal conductivity of 120 W/m-k. Here analysis of the heat transfer characteristics of engine fins is done by using these following materials namely Aluminium 6061, Aluminium 356 and Aluminium 204. The parametric model of the engine with different fins is designed using SOLIDWORKS Software, and thermal properties and thermal analysis are done using ANSYS Fluent Version 16.0 and the optimizing all the results via graphs in Data fit software.