Analytical And Experimental Study On The Comprehensive Performance Of Plate Fin And Staggered Heat Sinks

With the integration towards higher and the dimension towards more miniature, heat flow dissipated from electronic devices has been increasing continuously and has become one of the most restrictive factors hindering the development of electronic technology. With the advantages of convenience of design, ease of application and low cost, forced air-cooling with heat sinks and fans are now the most widely used cooling technology for electronic devices. Under this background, the present study of the heat transfer and flow characteristics of plate fin heat sinks and staggered heat sinks with forced air -cooling were carried out.Firstly, the current situation and development of the cooling technology and forced air-cooling heat sinks for electronic devices were reviewed, and then the physical and mathematical models were proposed. The velocity and temperature distribution of air in the channel of heat sinks were calculated based on the scheme of controlled volume method. One's knowledge about the flow and heat transfer in heat sinks might be intensified with the details of the velocity and temperature. Furthermore, the dimensionless quality parameter QF was used to represent the comprehensive performance of heat sinks by the ratio of the heat dissipation to the pumping power. The effects of the air incoming velocity and the heat sinks structure on the comprehensive performance were investigated. Optimization of heat sinks with maximizing QF as the target function was conducted by means of the complex algorithm of Box. Meanwhile, the influence of triangular edge shape channel inlet on the air flow characteristics and heat transfer in heat sinks was researched as well.These results indicate that in the scope of this essay, the comprehensive performance goes worse when the air incoming velocity increases. With same incoming air velocity, the comprehensive performance of staggered heat sinks are inferior to plate fin heat sinks; Whereas, with same heat flux, the comprehensive performance of staggered heat sinks are superior to plate fin heat sink and the triangle edge shape inlet configuration may enhance the comprehensive performance.Lastly, an experimental set-up was established. Several different plate fin and staggered heat sinks were machined. Experiments were carried out under various conditions. Comparison between numerical and experimental results was made, the apparent agreement demonstrates the validation of the present theoretical approach.