A successful application of homotopy perturbation method for efficiency and effectiveness assessment of longitudinal porous fins

In our previous works, thermal performance of straight fins with both constant and temperature-dependent thermal conductivity has been investigated in detail and dimensionless analytical expressions of fin efficiency and fin effectiveness have been developed for the first time in literature via homotopy perturbation method. In this study, previous works have been extended to porous fins. Governing equations have been formulated by performing Darcy's model. Dimensionless temperature distribution along the length of porous fin has been determined as a function of porosity and convection parameters. The ratio of porous fin to solid fin heat transfer rate has also been evaluated as a function of thermo-geometric fin parameter. The results have been compared with those of finite difference method for a specific case and an excellent agreement has been observed. The expressions developed are beneficial for thermal engineers for preliminary assessment of thermophysical systems instead of consuming time in heat conduction problems governed by strongly nonlinear differential equations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.