Effective surface cooling techniques are in demand by various industries. Such techniques improve system performance and keep it within the safe thermal threshold. Thus, active heat dissipation methods are of utmost importance. One such method involves the use of an extended
surface. Extended surfaces, like fin, improve the heat transfer rates by increasing the active heat dissipation area. On the other hand, a vortex generator enhances thermal dissipation by promoting boundary-layer interactions. Such interactions are strengthened by improving the developed
differential pressure along the flow direction. An effective design of the extended surface helps in this process. Despite significant efforts in the past, earlier designs of vortex generators have shown limitations. This work presents a novel approach where the incorporation of a trapezoidal-
shaped auxiliary surface, AP, onto a rectangular vortex generator, RVG, is proposed. A thorough parametric investigation is conducted using ANSYS Fluent to study various aspects of the AP, within a modified RVG. It includes a thorough study of its interior angles, width, height, and
inclination angle with the principal part. The conservation equations are solved numerically. The proposed design yields improved performance. Configuring the interior angles of the AP at 120o increases the convective heat transfer coefficient by 11.13%. The modification also enhances the
thermal performance factor by 9.9%. However, this enhancement is accompanied by a 3.53% rise in frictional losses. Further, a width of 0.01 m of the AP produces increments of 27.16% and 22.4% in the convective heat transfer coefficient and the thermal performance factor, respectively,
as compared to the RVG. The corresponding frictional losses show an increase of 11.98%. Introducing the AP at the top of the principal part of the modified RVG results in a 27.16% increase in the Nusselt number. Moreover, varying the inclination angle of the AP produces a maximum
increase of 27.64% in the Nusselt number and a 22.4% enhancement in the thermal performance factor.