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As fossil fuels are depleting gradually with the course of time there is a need in developing innovative products that can extract maximum potential that the system can deliver. One of the key areas that still make use of diesel fuels for experiencing thermal comfort is the boat heating system. Due to its user-friendly characteristics with low maintenance requirements has still been the benchmark for all other types of heaters. Boat cabin heater is an essential setup for all kinds of boats and ship not just for the warmth but also to eliminate the dampness that can spread throughout the boat in cold weather. The paper presents a detailed analysis of thermal behaviour inside a space heater using computational fluid dynamics technique to study the effect of fin numbers and fin location inside the heat exchanger. A total of 11 cases were simulated to study the effect of a fin on the heat transfer rate and pressure drop. Optimization is done to have a maximum heat transfer rate with minimum pressure drop and results showed that case number 9 has satisfied the above criteria to obtain effectiveness of 90%. The wall surfaces that were installed with fins had less temperature when compared with the wall surface without fins in the heat exchangers. Fins were responsible for solving the issue of natural convection by making the flow possible by creating a temperature gradient across the heat exchanger. Effectiveness of 90% was achieved by properly selecting the locations for the fins inside the heat exchanger and optimum fins required in achieving the desired effect was fulfilled with a case.
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