Experimental study on the thermal performance of straight and oblique finned, polymer heat sinks

Abstract

Heat sink can effectively dissipate heat in a range of thermal applications for improved performance and reliability. Thermally conductive polymer composites show great promise in solving the overheating issue in electronic devices. This experimental study investigates the thermal performance and the flow characteristics of straight and oblique finned heat sinks made of thermally conductive polymer composites under forced convection conditions over 7.45 × 10 4 ≤ Re ≤ 3.60 × 10 5 , where Re is the Reynolds number. The heat sinks used were 3D printed using Ice9 Flex (carbon filled polymer, from TCPoly), copper filled filament (polylactic acid with 80% copper particles) and bronze filled filament (polylactic acid with 80% bronze particles), respectively. Oblique fins were found to effectively reduce the thermal resistance of heat sinks, increase the convective heat transfer and the inner-fin velocity which results in lower pressure drop, in comparison to straight finned heat sinks. The carbon-filled polymer (Ice9 Flex) was shown to have much superior thermal dissipation characteristics compared to metal filled filaments.

Experimental, Theoretical and Numerical Studies on Thermal Properties of Lightweight 3D Printed Graphene-Based Discs with Designed Ad Hoc Air Cavities

“…Timbs et al have presented 3D printed heat sinks based on thermally conductive polymer composites with oblique fins, which present a lower thermal resistance and a better convective heat transfer, compared to the straight finned typical of heat exchangers [ 29 , 30 ]. For the purpose of improving thermal management features of GaN transistors, Gerges et al have proposed a light and cheap 3D printed polymer-based heat dissipator [ 31 ].…”

Excellent Thermal and Dielectric Properties of Hexagonal Boron Nitride/Phenolic Resin Bulk Composite Material for Heatsink Applications

“…Although great progress has been made recently in the field of highly conductive polymers [11], practically relevant values of several to tens W•m −1 •K −1 have been achieved primarily for oriented films or fibers that cannot be directly applied to produce bulk heatsink articles. Therefore, polymer composite materials (PCMs), based on thermally conductive fillers, are far more extensively developed and applied in automotive radiators [12], finned heatsinks for electronics [13,14], and heat exchangers [15].…”

“…Bulk materials based on h-BN and PRs can be used as materials for heat exchangers and dimensionally stable structures. A lot of research [12][13][14][15] is conducted on bulk heatsink composites.…”

Experimental and Simulation Studies of Temperature Effect on Thermophysical Properties of Graphene-Based Polylactic Acid

“…In line with these premises, Timbs et al have presented their experimental study on the thermal performance of 3D-printed heat sinks based on thermally conductive polymer composites [ 23 ]. Their results show as effective heat sinks with oblique fins present a lower thermal resistance and a better convective heat transfer in comparison to classical straight finned heat exchangers [ 23 , 24 ].…”

“…In line with these premises, Timbs et al have presented their experimental study on the thermal performance of 3D-printed heat sinks based on thermally conductive polymer composites [ 23 ]. Their results show as effective heat sinks with oblique fins present a lower thermal resistance and a better convective heat transfer in comparison to classical straight finned heat exchangers [ 23 , 24 ]. With the aim to improve thermal management aspects of GaN transistors, Gerges et al have been investigated a 3D-printed polymer-based heat dissipator that may be suitable for reducing the weight and cost of the thermal device [ 25 ].…”