Numerical analysis of transient response of convective-radiative cooling fin with convective tip under magnetic field for reliable thermal management of electronic systems

Abstract

Cooling fins are efficient passive heat transfer devices used to prevent thermal breakdown from various heat dissipating components. In this work, the numerical analysis of nonlinear transient thermal response of a convective-radiative cooling fin with convective tip and subjected to magnetic field is presented using finite volume method. An exact solution using Laplace transform is developed for the linear thermal model to verify the numerical solution. Using the numerical solution, the effects of convective tip on the theoretical predictions of the thermal performance of the solid fin are investigated. From the parametric studies, increase in the Biot number, convective, radiative and magnetic variable improves the fin efficiency. The assumption of negligible heat transfer at the fin tip present highly accurate results for short cooling fin operating in a steady state. However, such an assumption should not be used for a long cooling fin of finite length operating in a transient state, especially for a short period of time. The results presented in the paper, hopefully, serves as motivation for the design of thermally-enhanced heatsinks of solid fin under various thermal and fin tip conditions.