Effects of particles deposition on thermal performance of a convective-radiative heat sink porous fin of an electronic component

Abstract

The advent of high-power electronic system components and slim margin errors require the proper understanding of particle deposition characteristics and its effects on the thermal performance of electronic heat sinks of electronic devices. In this work, we investigate the effects of particle deposition on the thermal performance of convective-radiative porous fin heat sink of an electronic component using Chebyshev spectral collocation method. The numerical solutions from the developed thermal models are also used to study the influence of thermal conductivity, porosity, convection, and radiation parameter on the temperature distribution and overall fin efficiency. The analysis establishes that presence of particles or thermal fouling on the surface of the fin increases the temperature distribution and temperature uniformity of the fin whilst decreasing the heat transfer rate from the fin. The study also establishes that decrease in heat transfer rate from the fin is due to the particle deposition on the fin, which depends on the particle size, particle density and cooling air flow rate. Moreover, the fin efficiency decreases with an increasing value of the fouled Biot, Darcy and radiation numbers, and thermo-geometric parameter. The study further shows that the efficiency of the fouled porous fin is always greater than the efficiency of the clean porous fin. The analysis established that the result of Chebyshev spectral collocation method is in good agreement with that of the convectional numerical method using Runge-Kutta coupled with shooting method.