Approximate analytical method for porous stepped fins with temperature-dependent heat transfer parameters

This work presents the thermal investigation of a porous stepped fin made from different ceramic porous materials (Al and SiC) having temperature-dependent internal heat generation. The fin is dissipating heat to the environment by means of convection and radiation modes of heat transfer, which are further considered to be temperature dependent. The approximate analytical Adomian decomposing method is used to solve this nonlinear problem along with the Newton–Raphson method. The results obtained using the Adomian decomposing method are compared with relevant results available in literature. The effect of various thermophysical parameters on the thermal behavior of the fin is critically analyzed. An optimization study to maximize the heat transfer rate for a constant material volume has been also conducted. The performance of the porous stepped fin is compared with a porous straight fin and solid stepped fin, which proves that the porous stepped fin is a better alternative.