Influence of fin thickness variation on the thermal performance of metallic foam heat sink laminar condition

Abstract

In recent years, open-pore metallic foams have been employed in a wide variety of applications owing to the essential qualities that they possess. In the present study, the thermal performance of a finned heat sink made from open-cell copper foam was investigated numerically under laminar forced conditions. The influence of fin thickness, air velocity, and heat fluxes on the average heat sink base temperature to ambient temperature difference, the Nusselt number, and pressure drop were investigated. Fin thickness was generally taken as 2, 5, 7, and 10 mm. Heat fluxes were taken from (600 to 3000) W/m2, while the air velocity was taken from 0.04 to 0.16 m/s. The findings of laminar flow indicate that straight fins with a thickness of 10 mm minimize the temperature difference between the heat sink's base and the surrounding air the most, followed by fins with thicknesses of 7 mm, 5 mm, and 2 mm. At 3000 W/m2, a change in velocity from 0.04 to 0.16 m/s increases the average base temperature difference (i.e. (Tbase-Tamb)) by 118.9% for a heat sink with 10 mm straight fins. . At a heat flow of 600W/m2, the Nusselt number grew by 72.6%, 60.7%, and 45.7% when fin thickness was raised from 2 mm to 10 mm, 2 mm to 7 mm, and 2 mm to 5 mm, respectively. The results also demonstrate that the pressure drop rises with increasing fin thickness.