The Kirchhoff Transformation for Convective-radiative Thermal Problemsin Fins

- The present work describes the thermal profile of a single dissipation fin, where their surfaces reject heat to the environment. The problem happens in steady state, which is, all the analysis occurs after the thermal distribution reach heat balance considering that the fin dissipates heat by conduction, convection and thermal radiation. Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions are established, characterizing that heat dissipation occurs only on the fin faces, in addition to predicting that the ambient temperature is homogeneous. Heat transfer analysis is performed by computational simulations using appropriate numerical methods. The most of solutions in the literature consider some simplifications as constant thermal conductivity and linear boundary conditions, this work addresses this subject. The method applied is the Kirchhoff Transformation, that uses the thermal conductivity variation to define the temperatures values, once the thermal conductivity variate as a temperature function. For the real situation approximation, this work appropriated the silicon as the fin material to consider the temperature function at each point, which makes the equation that governs the non-linear problem. Finally, the comparison of the results obtained with typical results proves that the assumptions of variable thermal conductivity and heat dissipation by thermal radiation are crucial to obtain results that are closer to reality.