Experimental and numerical investigation of the parametric geometry influence on the thermal and hydraulic behavior of pin-fins heat sinks

This works presents a numerical and experimental study of pin-fin heat sinks, aiming to obtain the hydraulic and thermal behavior. The results are compared and validated with recent technical literature. The system consists of a pin-fin heat sink placed in a channel with a constant characteristic length, having an inlet section long enough to ensure that developed flow reaches the heat sink section. The cross section area of the channel is variable, while keeping constant the width of the channel. The high of the channel may be varied by increasing the gap at the top of the channel (like a by-pass). The effects in the thermal and hydraulic behavior generated by the by-pass are analyzed. A constant heat flux is applied at the bottom wall of the heat sink with values equivalent to the heat fluxes generated by current electronic devices. The fins used in this study have different geometries (cylindrical, square and elliptical). The heat sink arrangement uses different combinations of these three geometries. The results provide the pressure drop and the Nusselt number, for different air velocities. A comparison of the pressure distribution along the channel for each arrangement is done. Finally, the best arrangement based on the thermal and hydraulic performance of the system is attained. © 2009 by ABCM.

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