Abstract
A series of analysis has been conducted previously to analyze the finned heat sink thermal performance. The analysis is first performed to optimize the fin spacing of a vertical continuous finned heat sink. Both empirical and CFD methods are utilized to obtain the optimal fin spacing of a given heat sink. The results from both methods are in very good agreement. The analysis was then extended to optimize the fin configurations. Three types of fin configurations, namely continuous fins, staggered fins and in-line fins are under consideration. The results from the CFD analysis indicate that the continuous fin configuration is the most effective thermally. Later, the effects of the cover or shrouds at various distances on the heat sink thermal performance are also analyzed. The heat sink with the cover in a direct contact with the fin tips performs best in the heat rejection. For tower or poled mounted electronics, the heat sink weight is extremely important. Therefore, the extrusion fin heat sink is replaced by the plain fin heat sink for weight reduction. This study is aiming at the development of newly developed light weight finned heat sink and its thermal performance under natural convection for cooling of electronics.
Highlights
Heat transfer by natural convection has long been considered as one of the most cost effective and reliable cooling methods
The purpose of this work is to employ the knowledge gained from previous studies [5,6] to development of light weight heat sinks for tower or pole mounted electronics
The temperature profiles for the vertical and horizontal heat sinks are presented in Figures 6 and 7, respectively while the velocity profiles for the vertical and horizontal heat sinks are given in Figures 8 and 9, respectively
Summary
Heat transfer by natural (or free) convection has long been considered as one of the most cost effective and reliable cooling methods. Natural convection with air has many practical engineering applications and is of special interest to the cooling of electronic equipment. The advantages of air cooling by natural convection are safe, simple and cost effective. There are many studies of the natural convection from the multiple surfaces such as parallel plates or finned heat sinks by numerical analysis or by experiment. The corner regions formed by the base plate and the fins result in a significant reduction in the heat transfer
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