Experimental and numerical heat transfer analysis of heat-pipe-based CPU coolers and performance optimization methodology

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical heat transfer analysis of heat-pipe-based CPU coolers and a performance optimization methodology. The first part of the study focuses on the performance of two commercial HP-based CPU coolers under inclination angles of 0°, 90° and 180°. The results show that the 90° orientation provides the best thermal performance. The influence of heat pipe orientation on the performance of the entire system is obscured due to the much higher thermal resistance on the air-side of the cooler. A fourfold increase in air volumetric flow rate has only a minor effect on the cooling performance enhancement with a reduction of the thermal resistance from 0.11 K W-1 to 0.074 K W-1 at the highest heating power. In the second part of the study, heat transfer numerical simulations of the finned part of a cooler were performed and validated using experimental results. The output of the simulation is a 2-D temperature field, which is used as an input for the optimization methodology based on fin effectiveness and fin efficiency. Optimizing the fin geometry by removing unnecessary material yielded a 23% increase of the fin efficiency and decreased the weight of a fin by approx. 30%, proving the usefulness of the proposed methodology, which helps reduce costs, weight and development time of finned HP-based coolers.

Numerical study optimation design of CPU cooling system analysis using CFD method

“…An experimental design was used in this research. The aim of using an experimental design is to find out the optimal point and what factors influence it with taguchi method [26], [27]. This optimization uses three factors, and each has three levels, so the number of variations in this simulation is 27.…”

Experimental Study of the Wickless Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger by Using Nano Fluid

“…The wickless heat pipe is divided into three main regions and they are evaporator, condenser, and adiabatic sections. Generally, the heat is added at the evaporator and rejected at the condenser meanwhile it passes through the adiabatic section without any loss or addition [1]. It is essential to know that the wickless heat pipe heat exchanger is considered a heat exchanger device, but it transfers the heat energy using a heat pipe and not by the surface contact area such as shell and tube heat exchanger or double tube heat exchanger.…”