Performance of displaced fin heatsink in natural convection subject to upward and downward arrangement

Abstract

In this study, a heat sink with a displaced fin arrangement is proposed to enhance the thermal performance in natural convection. To demonstrate the competence of the proposed heat sink design, an experimental investigation was carried out for the upward and downward configurations for the heat flux range of 30–470 Wm-2. The experimental results suggest that the proposed heat sink with the fin displacement distance of 20 mm can reduce the total thermal resistance by 11% and 14% for the upward and downward configurations, respectively. The parametric study was conducted with the Definitive Screening Designs (DSDs) method, and it suggested thirteen optimized test conditions. The outcome of the parametric study implies that the fin spacing plays a vital role in determining the heat sink performance, followed by the fin height and fin length; and the effect of heat flux is insignificant. For the thirteen test conditions suggested by the DSDs method, the numerical investigation was conducted. The numerical results show that for the same volume, when compared to the regular rectangular heat sink the proposed heat sink can provide an 11% performance enhancement with a 28.7% reduction in mass.