The effect of solar irradiation on the temperature of an electronic device
attached to a heat sink is studied. Heat sinks with different surface
treatments are considered for this study. The contribution of absorbed solar
heat by the Alumina coated fin surface varies from 2.1 % to 12.4 % of the
heat generated by the electronic devices and it reveals that the amount of
solar heat absorbed by the black painted heat sink is almost equal to the
heat generated by the electronics system. It is also found that the
percentage of heat transfer by radiation varies from 6.2 % to 11.0 % for
commercial finish heat sinks and is as high as 58.7% for a black painted
heat sink. The combined effect of emissivity and solar absorptivity is
studied to optimize the heat sink. For 10 mm fin height, the black painted
heat sink illustrates better performance and for 20 mm and 30 mm fin height,
the Alumina coated heat sink exhibits better performance. The temperature of
the electronic device increases when the base area of the heat sink is
increased beyond 700 cm2, which is the optimum base area. When the fin
height is increased to 20 mm, the optimum base area for the black painted
and Alumina coated heat sink is also increased to 780 cm2 and 850 cm2
respectively, thus reducing the device temperature further. The CFD results
are validated with the temperature measurement conducted on the heat sink
exposed to solar irradiation.
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