Abstract
Computational studies of natural convection heat transfer to air from an isothermal vertical plate (2D) and a vertical plate fin type heat sink (3D) in the open system are described. The dimensional governing equations with the appropriate boundary conditions have been solved for △T=30 by means of SIMPLE method. As the results for a vertical plate agree with existing results, the same concept of numerical analysis is expanded to 3D and applied to a plate fin type heat sink. It is shown that heat transfer coefficient of fin side plate agrees with the experimental results by Aibara, and the optimum number of fin for a plate fin type heat sink of 4cm×4cm is demonstrated.
