Comparison of thermal performances of plate-fin and pin-fin heat sinks subject to an impinging flow

Abstract

In this paper, we compare thermal performances of two-types of heat sinks commonly used in the electronic equipment industry: plate-fin and pin-fin heat sinks. In particular, heat sinks subject to an impinging flow are considered. For comparison of the heat sinks, we suggest a model based on the averaging method for predicting the pressure drop and the thermal resistance. Experimental investigations are also performed in order to validate the proposed model. Using the validated model, thermal resistances of the optimized plate-fin and pin-fin heat sinks are compared under fixed pumping power conditions. Finally, a contour map, which depicts the ratio of the thermal resistances of the optimized plate-fin and pin-fin heat sinks as a function of dimensionless pumping power and dimensionless length, is presented. The contour map indicates that the optimized pin-fin heat sink is always superior to the optimized plate-fin heat sink in a practical situation where the impinging area is the same as the base area of the heat sink.