Design of Optimum Plate-Fin Natural Convective Heat Sinks

Abstract

The effort described herein extends the use of least-material single rectangular plate-fin analysis to multiple fin arrays, using a composite Nusselt number correlation. The optimally spaced least-material array was also found to be the globally best thermal design. Comparisons of the thermal capability of these optimum arrays, on the basis of total heat dissipation, heat dissipation per unit mass, and space claim specific heat dissipation, are provided for several potential heat sink materials. The impact of manufacturability constraints on the design and performance of these heat sinks is briefly discussed.

An analytical method for the optimum thermal design of convective longitudinal fin arrays

“…Three convective heat transfer coefficients h, h* and ' h are considered, assuming that they maintain a preassigned value if the interfin spacing is greater than a limit value ' c . The idea that finned surface is subjected to uniform surface heat transfer coefficient is well accepted in the literature as discussed also in recent works on the same argument [4,10].…”

“…[10]. In the first case the number of fins is higher than the interfin spaces, while in the second case there is one interfin space more than the fins.…”

“…About the second approach, the literature is less rich and where investigators consider it, in order to obtain analytical solutions, frequently they introduce simplified assumptions that made difficult to have a common reference base for the solution of the problem. The approach, referred in some meaningful papers [1,[6][7][8][9][10], can be quite complex but it seems to be idoneous to define solutions more convenient, especially in the application to advanced thermal control systems as in the case of electronic equipment [8].…”

Effect of Material Inhomogeneity on Thermal Performance of a Rheocast Aluminum Heatsink for Electronics Cooling

“…Heatsink analysis methods are well developed and the influence of geometry, material selection, surface treatment and airflow conditions on the heat transfer have been investigated [12].…”

Natural convection and entropy production in a cubic cavity heated via pin-fins heat sinks

“…In these systems, the predominant heat transfer mechanism is natural convection. Calculation of generated entropy is very important to make good design and energy efficient systems [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”