A comparative experimental thermal performance analysis of conical pin fin heat sink with staggered and modified staggered layout under forced convection

Abstract

• An experimental thermal performance study of conical pin fin heat sinks in comparison. • CPFHS mst has the minimum R th and T j in all tests. • CCPFHS perp has the maximum pressure drop in any case. • CCPFHS perp at 33 W and CPFHS mst at 66-99 W has the highest average Nu. • CPFHS mst has a better average THP than other heat sink models for all the powers. In contrast to the common practice of evaluating heat sinks with inline or standard staggered fin placement, this research investigated the thermo-hydraulic performance of conical pin-fin heat sinks with staggered-(CPFHS st ) and modified staggered-(CPFHS mst ) fin placements. The heat sinks with cross-cut pin-fins oriented parallel-(CCPFHS par ) and perpendicular-(CCPFHS perp ) to the airflow and a flat heat sink (FHS) are also used for comparison. The effect of heat sink fin placement on the parameters became remarkable with increasing Re, so the modified staggered fin placement was 2-7 °C lower than the staggered surface and junction temperatures. R th of the modified model compared to the staggered was 5.3%, 5.8%, and 3.5% lower, while the highest ΔP is in CCPFHS perp with 6.7, 6.9, and 7.4 Pa. CCPFHS perp provided a 29.9% advantage of Nu to the modified model, whereas the modified model provided a 6.4% over CCPFHS perp and a 17.4% over the staggered model for the test powers. The modified model provides the highest THP performance, with a 13.3% advantage over CCPFHS perp , 12%, and 10.9% over the staggered model for the test powers. The CPFHS mst is superior regarding thermo-hydraulic performance and is an appropriate option among many heat sink models in the literature.