Study of combined heat and mass transfer from fins using nondimensional finite element formulation

The use of dimensional analysis and dimensionless parameters is very common in the field of heat transfer. The paper presents a non-dimensional finite element capable of modeling combined heat and mass transfer from fins. The aim of the formulation is to get solution of the fin problems that do not have a closed form solution. The performance of a fin is described through its efficiency and numerous closed form solutions for fin efficiency under combined heat and mass transfer are available in the literature. Deriving a closed form solution for geometric or material complexities is somewhat a difficult task. An example is variable profile composite fin. A composite fin is composed of base material or substrate with a coating layer. Finite element approach can handle such complexity with relatively ease, Therefore the main objective is to developed formulation for mass transfer problems. The formulation is derived in dimensionless form to extend the applicability of finite element results to a class of problems with same governing dimensionless parameters. The derived formulation is then applied to study the combined heat and mass transfer for variable profile composite fins under fully wet condition.