Improved design of heat sink including porous pin fins with different arrangements: A numerical turbulent flow and heat transfer study

Abstract

Recently, there exist rapid advancements in different parts of some devices that produce significant heat. Active or passive methods, in different ways, can be used to cool down and dissipate the generated heat of these devices. Besides, the hot surface area of the heat sink adjacent to the cooling fluid plays a vital role in heat transfer increment. Utilizing the porous fins with metal foams can provide a better fluid–solid contact condition. However, this method requires more pumping power for coolant fluids. In the present study, numerical simulations of turbulent flow forced convection heat transfer of air in the presence of porous pin fins, for cooling thermal parts of devices, is investigated. Five fin structures (rectangular, increasing, decreasing, V-shaped, and wedge-shaped) and two different fin arrangements (aligned and staggered), three various Darcy numbers (Da = 10−1, 10−2, 10−4), are examined and the effects of these parameters on the heat sink performance are analyzed. Results are presented in terms of the effectiveness, heat transfer coefficients, performance evaluation criteria – considering both the friction and the heat transfer factors – and temperature and stream function contours. It is concluded that, among the studied cases, the decreasing-aligned pin fin configuration with the highest Darcy number provides the best performance.