Effects of Ambient Temperatures on Natural Convection Heat Transfer from Finned Heat Sinks

Abstract

The electronic equipment is often required to operate at various ambient temperatures in the real world conditions, especially for an outdoor system. A cfd analysis is performed to study the effects of the ambient temperatures for the finned heat sink on the heat transfer coefficient under the natural convection conditions. Four different ambient temperatures, 100, 120, 140 and 160 oF are considered for the continuous fin, staggered fin and in-line fin heat sinks. The overall heat transfer coefficient of individual finned heat sinks is determined to facilitate the thermal analysis and design of the equipment.