International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Experimental study on the enhancement of contact heat transfer by

micro fin
Ruifeng Dou a,b,⇑, Qiuhao Li a, Cheng Zhu a, Rongzhao Zhang a, Zhi Wen a,b, Xunliang Liu a,b
a
School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory for Energy Saving and Emission Reduction of Metallurgical Industry, Beijing 100083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A series of experiments was performed to investigate the enhancement effect of micro fin, contact pres-
Received 18 September 2018 sure, and interface temperature on thermal contact conductance. The specimens were made of 7075 alu-
Received in revised form 3 December 2018 minum alloy. The contact surfaces of specimens with micro fin were specially machined such that two
Accepted 13 January 2019
specimens were coaxially inlayed together. Contact pressure ranged from 2 MPa to 4.2 MPa, and interface
temperature ranged from 165 °C to 180 °C and 215 °C to 227 °C. Experimental results showed that the
micro fin could enhance thermal contact conductance, and the contact heat transfer enhancement effects
Keywords:
caused by the micro fin gradually increased with contact pressure. Thermal contact conductance was
Thermal contact conductance
Micro fin
high under higher interface temperature. The loading process changed the enhancing effect of the micro
Contact pressure fin, and enhancement of contact heat transfer was greater in the unloading process than in the loading
Interface temperature process. A qualitative analysis on the enhancement effect was conducted to explain the contact heat
transfer enhancement effect for different micro-finned surfaces.
Ó 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction Verma and Mazumder [5] quantified the effect of asperity size
and shape on thermal contact conductance by using a numerical
Thermal contact conductance is commonly encountered in method. The results revealed that thermal contact conductance
engineering applications, such as casting, electronics, heat treat- was a strong function of asperity size and a weak function of asper-
ment, and spacecraft. The steady-state heat transfer method is a ity shape. Numerical results by Fang et al. [6] reveal that thermal
conventional and common technique of measuring thermal con- contact conductance increases as the decrease of surface rough-
tact conductance [1]. However, the physical mechanism of contact ness. Cui et al. [7] and Zhang et al. [8] concluded that the effect
heat transfer is extremely complex because it is nonlinearly of improving contact heat transfer by pursuit of high surface finish
affected by contact pressure, interface temperature, interface and loading pressure was limited. Gou et al. [9] proposed a numer-
roughness, and surface geometry. Thermal contact conductance is ical model to predict the thermal contact conductance of rough
enhanced by high contact pressure, flat surfaces with low rough- surfaces, the model provides a method to investigate the effect of
ness and thermal interface materials, such as thermal grease. surface asperities on thermal contact conductance.
Thermal contact conductance has been intensively researched. Hysteresis effect, in which the thermal contact conductance in
Yovanovich [2] reviewed thermal contact resistance in microelec- the unloading process is higher than that in the loading process,
tronics extensively. Tang and Zhang [3] investigated the effect of has been observed in many works [10–12]. Joseph et al. [13] inves-
contact pressure on thermal contact conductance under high tem- tigated the effect of thermal and load cycles on thermal contact
perature experimentally. The results showed that thermal contact conductance at cryogenic temperatures. They summarized that
conductance was nearly directly proportional to interface pressure, the thermal and load cyclings increased thermal contact conduc-
which was inconsistent with most reported exponential relations. tance continuously. This result was consistent with that of Li
Dou et al. [4] found that thermal contact conductance had an expo- et al. [14] but slightly different from the conditions at high temper-
nential relationship with temperature and contact pressure. ature. Wahid and Madhusudana [15] examined the effects of over-
loading and load cycling on thermal contact conductance. Their
results showed that the enhancement of contact heat transfer by
⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, cyclic loading was rather small, but the overloading effect on the
University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China. enhancement of thermal contact conductance was remarkable.
E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Dou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.01.058
0017-9310/Ó 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
 R. Dou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488 483

Gopal and Whiting et al. [16] focused on the effect of load cycling
on thermal contact conductance and discovered that load cycling
for a variety of surface topographies and maximum contact pres-
sures had minimal effect on thermal contact conductance, but an
exception was provided for the first load cycle.
Many different kinds of thermal interface materials are created
to enhance the heat transfer between solid surfaces, but there is a
clear need for dry contact thermal interface solutions at low pres-
sure [17]. And at some high temperature conditions, the applica-
tions of thermal interface materials are not applicable.
Here, the enhancement effect of micro fin on contact conduc-
tance was discussed. Four pairs of specimens were prepared, and
a qualitative analysis of the enhancement effect was performed
to explain the contact heat transfer enhancement effect of different
micro-finned surfaces. The present paper proves that: the flat and
smooth contact surface is not the only way to enhance contact heat
transfer, a micro structured surface could also enhance contact
heat transfer.

2. Experimental method

2.1. Experimental facility

The steady-state 1D experimental method was used in the pre-

Fig. 2. Coaxial installation of specimens (d is fin height).
sent study. Fig. 1 shows the experimental facility. Two specimens
(hot-side and cold-side specimens) are coaxially located in the cen- inlayed together. The thermocouples were inserted into the holes
ter of the facility. Four thermocouples were installed in each spec- with a diameter of 0.8 mm. The distance between adjacent thermo-
imen, and their positions are shown in Fig. 2. The lever, balancing couples is 10.0 mm. Here, 0.7 mm K-type thermocouples were
weight, and weight can provide a stable contact pressure at the used. Table 1 shows the thermal conductivities of 7075 aluminum
contact interface, whose relative uncertainty is less than 1.0%. A alloy at different temperatures.
data acquisition computer records all temperatures continuously.
The thermal conductivity of a nanoporous insulation material is
2.2. Specimens
0.025 W m
1 °C
1 (at 400 °C). In all the following experiments,
the outside surface temperature of the nanoporous insulation
In this research, four pairs of specimens with different surface
material did not exceed 33 °C, and the environmental temperature
geometries were used. Fig. 3 shows the profiles of these specimens,
was approximately 20 °C. The nanoporous insulation material
namely, Specimen 1 (Sp. 1), which has a flat surface, its diameter is
ensures that the heat conduction in the specimens is a 1D conduc-
U1 = 20.00 mm; Specimen 2 (Sp. 2), which has the largest micro-fin
tion along the axial of the specimens. With the automatic con-
size, its diameter is U2 = 21.75 mm; Specimen 3 (Sp. 3), which has a
troller, the temperature accuracy of the heater is less than ±2 °C.
medium micro-fin size, its diameter is U3 = 20.50 mm; and Speci-
Two cylindrical specimens made by 7075 aluminum alloy were
men 4 (Sp. 4), which has the smallest micro-fin size, its diameter
installed coaxially (Fig. 2). The micro fins on the contact surfaces
is U4 = 20.75 mm.
were specially machined to make the two specimens coaxially
The contact surface of Sp. 1 is a flat surface, and its surface
roughness Ra is 1.6 lm. Sp. 1 serves as the control specimen. Sp.
2 has a triangular fin, and its height and width are 1630 and
1500 lm, respectively. Sp. 3 has a triangular fin, and its height
and width are 1360 and 900 lm, respectively. The fins on Sp. 4
are similar to a rectangular straight fin, and the height and width
are approximately 830 and 260 lm, respectively.
In the following experiments, the specimens with the same sur-
face geometries contact with one another. The fins on the speci-
mens are inlayed together. Fig. 4 shows the contact statuses of
Sp. 2, Sp. 3, and Sp. 4 schematically. In the experiments, plastic
deformation may initially occur at the fin tips because they are
the weakest part of the specimens and contact with the other spec-
imens. Finally, the plastic deformation leads to the increase of real
contact area and thermal contact conductance.

3. Calculation of thermal contact conductance

The heat transfer in the specimens is a 1D steady-state conduc-

tion. Heat flux is mainly conducted along the axial direction, and
the heat flux in the radial direction is negligible. Each specimen
has four thermocouples (Fig. 2). The least squares method is
Fig. 1. Schematic of experimental facility. adopted to obtain the linear function (Eq. (1)) of temperature dis-
484 R. Dou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488

Table 1
. Thermal conductivity of 7075 aluminum alloy [18].

Temperature (°C) 25 50 100 125 150 200 >200

1
1
Thermal conductivity (W m °C ) 124 128 142 147 157 170 170

Fig. 3. Profiles of specimens with different surface geometries.

tribution along the axis of the hot-side (a) and cold-side specimens
(b).
(a) Sp. 2
T ¼ kx þ c ð1Þ
where k is the gradient of temperature, °C m
1; x is position, m; and
c is intercept.
Heat flux qa (heat flux along the axis of hot side specimen) and
qb (heat flux along the axis of cold side specimen) are obtained
according to Fourier’s law (Eq. (2)).
q ¼
kdT=dx ¼
kk ð2Þ

1
1
where k is the thermal conductivity of the specimen, W m °C .
Under ideal conditions, qa and qb should be equal, but a small
difference is observed between these two fluxes because heat leaks
in the radial direction. For all experiments, the maximum relative
difference between qa and qb. is 8.9%. Here, we take the arithmetic
mean values of qa and qb as the heat flux through the contact inter-
face [19].
qavg ¼ ðqa þ qb Þ=2 ð3Þ
(b) Sp. 3
where qavg is the arithmetic mean value of the heat flux in speci-
mens (a) and (b), W m
2 °C
1.
The surface temperatures Ta and Tb of Specimens (a) and (b) can
be obtained by using the extrapolation method according to the
linear temperature distribution function of Specimens (a) and (b),
respectively.


qa d
Ta ¼ T4
0:006 þ ð4Þ
ka 2


qb d
Tb ¼ T5 þ 0:006 þ ð5Þ
kb 2
where ka and kb are thermal conductivity of Specimens (a) and (b),
respectively, W m
1 °C
1. The positions of temperatures T4 and T5
are shown in Fig. 2.
The interface temperature difference is DTint.
DT int ¼ T a
T b ð6Þ
(c) Sp. 4
Thus, the thermal contact conductance hc can be obtained by Eq.
(7). Fig. 4. Contact status of specimens with same surface geometry.
 R. Dou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488 485

hc ¼ qavg =DT int ð7Þ

4. Uncertainty analysis

The uncertainty analysis mainly includes the uncertainty of

heat flux qavg and the interface temperature difference DTint.
According to Eq. (2), the uncertainty of heat flux q is u(q).
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

2
2
@q @q
uðqÞ ¼ u2 ðkÞ þ u2 ðkÞ ð8Þ
@k @k

where u(k) = 4% is the uncertainty of the thermal conductivity of

7075 aluminum alloy. u(k) is the uncertainty of the temperature
gradient, which is obtained according to the propagation of error
during the linear fitting. The uncertainty of the measured tempera-
ture is u(T) = 1.5 °C. The uncertainty of the thermocouple position is
u(x) = 0.1 mm.The uncertainty of average heat flux qavg is u(qavg).
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
(a) Interface temperature range: 165 °C–180 °C



@qavg 2 2 @qavg 2 2
uðqavg Þ ¼ u ðqa Þ þ u ðqa Þ ð9Þ
@qa @qb
The uncertainty of interface temperature difference is u(DTint):
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

2
2
2
2
@ DT @ DT @ DT @ DT
uðDT int Þ ¼ u2 ðT 5 Þ þ u2 ðT 4 Þ þ u2 ðqR Þ þ u2 ðqL Þ:
@T 5 @T 4 @qR @qL
ð10Þ

According to Eq. (7), the uncertainty of thermal contact conduc-

tance is:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
!
u
2
u @h 2   @h @2h  
uðhÞ ¼ t u2 qavg þ u2 ðDT int Þ
2q u qavg uðDT int Þ:
@qavg @ DT int @qavg @ DT int
ð11Þ

where q is coefficient of association.The uncertainty of all the ther-

mal contact conductance is shown in the following figures (Figs. 6
and 7).
(b) Interface temperature range: 215 °C–227 °C
5. Results and discussion Fig. 6. Curves of thermal contact conductance.

5.1. Experimental results

loading process for Sp. 1. The temperature distribution for every
During the experiments, the temperature of the heating furnace loading step is in linear form. Fig. 5 shows that the temperature
is fixed. Then, increasing (loading) and decreasing (unloading) of the specimens increases gradually with the load, but the raising
loads are applied on the specimens. At each loading step, temper- rate decreases at higher contact pressure. All the other experi-
ature data are recorded when their variation is smaller than 0.3 °C ments in this study have the same temperature distribution form.
within 30 min. Fig. 5 shows the temperature distribution in the According to the aforementioned data analysis method, the
thermal contact conductance curves for each pair of specimens
under different interface temperatures and loading and unloading
processes are shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b). The hysteresis effect is
clearly observed for all the experiments, which is in accordance
with the results in Refs. [10–12].
Because each pair of specimens have different diameters, and
we using the lever, balancing weight, and weight to provide a
stable contact pressure at the contact interface (Refer to Fig. 1),
so under the same weight, the contact pressure is different.
Fig. 6(a) shows the curves of thermal contact conductance when
the interface temperature ranges from 165 °C to 180 °C. For the
loading process, Sp. 1 has the lowest thermal contact conductance,
and its value ranges between 6157 and 8082 W m
2 °C
1. Sp. 2 has
the highest thermal contact conductance, ranging from
8446 W m
2 °C
1 to 12651 W m
2 °C
1, which is 50–57% higher
than that of Sp. 1. The thermal contact conductance of Sp. 4 is
remarkably close to that of Sp. 2 at the same contact pressure.
Although the thermal contact conductance of Sp. 3 is lower than
those of Sp. 2 and Sp. 4, it remains higher than that of Sp. 1. These
Fig. 5. Temperature distribution in loading process of Sp. 1. results indicate that the surface with micro fin can enhance contact
486 R. Dou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488

The loading curves of Sp. 4 and Sp. 1 in Fig. 6(b) show that when
the contact pressure is not higher than a certain critical contact
pressure (In this study, the critical contact pressure is approxi-
mately 2.68 MPa.), the addition of micro fin can weaken the con-
tact heat transfer. However, this condition reverses at high
contact pressure.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) show that during the unloading process, all the
thermal contact conductances of Sp. 2, Sp. 3, and Sp. 4 are greater
than that of Sp. 1. The unloading curves in Fig. 6(b) show that: at
the contact pressure of 2.39 MPa, the thermal contact conductance
is enhanced to 1.95 times that of Sp. 1 by Sp. 2; At the contact pres-
sure of 4.17 MPa, thermal contact conductance is enhanced by 1.76
times that of Sp. 1 by Sp. 2. A comparison between the loading and
unloading processes shows that the enhancing effect of the micro
fin on contact heat transfer is greater in the unloading process than
in the loading process.
In addition to contact pressure and loading process, the inter-
(a) Loading process face temperature is a parameter that affects contact heat transfer
greatly. Fig. 7(a) shows that the thermal contact conductances of
Sp. 1 and Sp. 3 are high at an interface temperature of 215–
224 °C. The reason is that the increase in interface temperature
decreases the hardness of the solid material and increases the real
contact area. However, the relation between for Sp. 2 and Sp. 4 is
slightly complex, in Fig. 7(a) the two curves at different interface
temperatures intersect. Thermal contact conductance is low under
high interface temperature when the contact pressure is below the
crossed point. This abnormal phenomenon shows the complicated
aspect of the contact heat transfer, and the addition of the micro fin
makes the mechanisms increasingly complex.
High interface temperature during the unloading process indi-
cates high thermal contact conductance for all the specimens
(Fig. 7(b)). Moreover, all the curves are approximately parallel with
each other. The data in Fig. 7(b) show that: at unloading process,
the increase in interface temperature increases thermal contact
conductance. The curves also show that at different interface tem-
(b) Unloading process peratures, the micro fin can greatly enhance the contact heat
transfer.
Fig. 7. Effects of interface temperature on thermal contact conductance. Many works prove that the higher the surface roughness the
lower the thermal contact conductance [4,7,8,19,20]. This is
because the surface roughness decreases the real contact area at
heat transfer, and the size and geometry of the micro fin have
same contact pressure and temperature. But the micro fin could
remarkable effects on thermal contact conductance. The error bars
extend the surface area, and because the micro fin could inlayed
in Fig. 6(a) demonstrate that the enhancements are not affected by
together, so it increases the contact area, finally enhances the ther-
experimental uncertainty.
mal contact conductance.
The surfaces of Sp. 2 and Sp. 3 have triangular micro fins, and
the fin size of Sp. 2 is larger than that of Sp. 3 (Fig. 3). Fig. 3 shows
5.2. Heat transfer enhancement analysis
that the fin tip angle h of Sp. 2 is approximately 21°, whereas that
of Sp. 3 is approximately 13°, which is smaller than that of Sp. 2.
The force analysis of one single micro fin is as follows. Fig. 8
The micro fin on Sp. 4 is similar to a rectangular fin, and its angle
shows the force analysis for Sp. 2 and Sp. 3, which have the same
is not greater than 6°. These geometry characteristics result in dif-
form of fin geometry. The width of the fin base is W, fin height is
ferent contact heat transfer enhancement effects. Furthermore,
H, and the fin tip angle is h (Fig. 3). The geometrical relationship
Fig. 6(a) shows that the thermal contact conductance of Sp. 2 is
suggests that L = 0.5 W/sinh. The forces on the fin include down-
the largest at the different contact pressures, and Sp. 1 has the low-
ward pressure force Fp, supporting force F0p at the fin tip, friction
est value during the unloading process.
forces FfL and FfR on the side surfaces (Ff = FfL = FfR), normal forces
Fig. 6(b) shows that during the loading process under the tem-
FnL, and FnR on the side surfaces (Fn = FnL = FnR). The force balance
perature range of 215–227 °C, the thermal contact conductance of
in the vertical direction provides the result shown in Eq. (12).
Sp. 2 is greater than that of Sp. 3, and both are greater than that of
Sp. 1, indicating that the micro fin can enhance contact heat trans- 2ðF f cosh þ F n sinhÞ ¼ F p
F 0p ; ð12Þ
fer. At the contact pressure of 4.17 MPa, the thermal contact con-
ductance of Sp. 2 is 79% greater than that of Sp. 1. However, at where Ff = fFn, and f is the static friction coefficient among the alu-
the low contact pressure of 2.40 MPa, the thermal contact conduc- minum alloys. Then,
tance of Sp. 2 is only 1.20 times that of Sp. 1. Comparison between 1 F p
F 0p
Sp. 3 and Sp. 1 and between Sp. 2 and Sp. 1 show the same trend, Fn ¼ : ð13Þ
2 f cos h þ sin h
that is, as the contact pressure increases, the contact heat transfer
enhancement effects caused by the micro fin gradually increase. The normal pressure rn on the side surface is
 R. Dou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488 487

The overall heat transfer enhancement factor for Sp. 3 is

Eh3 = hnAn.

3:3  ð0:29Þ0:85 hp Ap < hn An < 3:3  ð0:39Þ0:85 hp Ap

! 1:25hp Ap < Eh3 < 1:63hp Ap ð23Þ
The contact pressure for Sp. 1 is rp, contact area is Ap, and the
thermal contact conductance is hp.
The aforementioned relations show that under the same static
friction force f, the enhancement of contact heat transfer by micro
fin on Sp. 2 is more remarkable than that of Sp. 3, and the micro fin
makes the contact heat transfer of Sp. 3 slightly higher than that of
Sp. 1. The same relationship can be found in Fig. 6.
However, the force analysis for Sp. 4 has some different fea-
tures. Fig. 3 shows that the micro fin on Sp. 4 has a flat fin tip,
and its width is W’. Fig. 9 shows the forces on a micro fin. The
Fig. 8. Force analysis of micro fin on Sp. 2 and Sp. 3. use of the same analytical procedure yields
0
1 F p
2F p
Fn ¼ : ð24Þ
2 f cosh þ sinh


1
Fn F p
F 0p f The side surface length is L.
rn ¼ ¼ þ1 : ð14Þ
L  1 W  1 tgh
W
2W 0
L¼ ð25Þ
If the supporting force F0p at fin tip is assumed to be negligible, 2sinh
then the apparent contact pressure is rp. Finally, the normal pressure rn on the side surface is
Fp
Fp 0

1
rp ¼
Fp
 ð15Þ Fn F p
2F 0p f
W 1 W 1 rn ¼ ¼ 0
 þ1 : ð26Þ
L1 W
2W  1 tgh
Moreover,


1 The geometric analysis (Fig. 2) shows that 2W 0 ¼ 0:50W. The
f normal pressure on the side surface is approximately estimated
rn  rp þ1 : ð16Þ
as Fp0 = 0.2Fp, and other assumptions provide a similar result. Then,
tgh
for Sp. 4,
The static friction coefficient among the aluminum alloys is in
the range of 0.3–0.5. The profile curves in Fig. 2 show that the fin 0:21rp < rn < 0:31rp ; ð27Þ
tip angles h of Sp. 2 and Sp. 3 are 21° and 13°, respectively. Thus,
we have following relationships: ð0:21Þ0:85 hp < hn < ð0:31Þ0:85 hp ! 0:27hp < hn < 0:37hp ; ð28Þ
for Sp:2 : 0:43rp < rn < 0:56rp ; ð17Þ
F 0p
r0p ¼ : ð29Þ
for Sp:3 : 0:29rp < rn < 0:39rp : ð18Þ W0  1
Then,
According to Ref. [21], a power relation exists between thermal
contact conductance h and contact pressure rp. r0p ¼ 0:8rp ; ð30Þ
h / r0:85
p ð19Þ and the thermal contact conductance h0p at the fin tip is
The following relationships exist between the thermal contact 0
hp ¼ ð0:8Þ0:85 hp ¼ 0:83hp : ð31Þ
conductances at side surfaces hn and hp (thermal contact conduc-
tance without micro fin):

for Sp:2 : ð0:43Þ0:85 hp < hn < ð0:56Þ0:85 hp ; ð20Þ

for Sp:3 : ð0:29Þ0:85 hp < hn < ð0:39Þ0:85 hp : ð21Þ

The thermal contact conductance hn (on the side surface of
micro fin) is lowered relative to the flat surface because the normal
pressure is relatively small for the surface with micro fin.
However, the micro fin increases the surface area. For Sp. 2, the
surface area An increases to 3.1 times that of the flat surface area
Ap = W  1. For Sp. 3, the area An is 3.3 times that of the flat surface
Ap. Here, a parameter is defined: Eh, the overall heat transfer
enhancement factor, is the product of thermal contact conductance
and surface area.
The overall heat transfer enhancement factor for Sp. 2 is
Eh2 = hnAn.

3:1  ð0:43Þ0:85 hp Ap < hn An < 3:1  ð0:56Þ0:85 hp Ap

! 1:51hp Ap < Eh2 < 1:89hp Ap ð22Þ
Fig. 9. Force analysis of micro fin on Sp.4.
488 R. Dou et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 134 (2019) 482–488

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. centrosymmetric microstructures to enhance dry contact thermal
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Acknowledgement International Heat Transfer Conference, IHTC-16, August 10–15, 2018,
Beijing, China.
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Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in

the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.
2019.01.058.