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The turbulent characteristics of heat transfer and flow have been determined by applying the Van Driest model of the eddy diffusivity for water and ethylene glycol-based nanofluids. The properties of CuO, Al2O3 and SiO2 nanofluids in two base liquids viz., water and EG-water mixture with the ratio of 60:40 are considered for various concentrations and bulk temperature ranges. Based on the observations, it is concluded that numerical outcomes are validated with experimental measurements for heat transfer properties. It is monitored that SiO2 reaches a higher temperature gradient in comparison to CuO at a similar temperature and concentration in EG-water with the mixture of 60: 40. The gradients are greater for the EGW mixture compared to water-based nanofluids. However, the water-based nanofluids have higher heat transfer coefficients compared to EG-water nanofluid at identical flow velocities.

A quasi-3D numerical model is developed to study the problem of laminar natural convection and radiation heat transfer from a vertical fin array. An enclosure is formed by two adjacent vertical fins and vertical base in the fin array. Results obtained from this enclosure are used to predict heat transfer rate from a vertical fin array. All the governing equations related to fluid in the enclosure, together with the heat conduction equation in both fins are solved by using the Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) method for getting the temperatures along the height of the fin and the temperature of the fluid in the enclosure. Separate analysis is carried out to calculate the heat transfer rates from the end fins in the fin array. A numerical study has been carried out for the effect of fin height, fin spacing, fin array base temperature, and fin emissivity on total heat transfer rates and effectiveness of the fin array. The numerical results obtained for an eight-fin array show good agreement with the available experimental data. Results show that the fin spacing is the most significant parameter and there exists an optimum value for the fin spacing for which the heat transfer rate from the fin array is maximum. Correlations are presented for predicting the total heat transfer rate, average Nusselt number, and effectiveness of the fin array. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj). DOI 10.1002/htj.20360