Numerical simulation of thermal and hydraulic performance of a micro plate-pin fin heat sink

Abstract

In this paper, thermal and hydraulic performance of a plate-pin fin heat sink with air as cooling agent is investigated. The heat sink is subjected to a heat flux at a strip of its base. The numerical approach was validated using available experimental data. Hydraulic parameters including pressure drop and coefficient of friction and thermal parameters including Nusselt number and thermal resistance were considered for performance evaluations. In order to improve thermal performance of the heat sink, a single pin was inserted into each channel. The influence of the pin geometry, its dimensions, and location were studied. Various pin cross sections, including circular, elliptic and airfoil were studied. To investigate the effect of the circular pin location, seven different positions were considered for two sizes of the pin and the optimum location was derived. The simulation was carried out for five different Reynolds numbers in the range of 2730 to 6300. It was found that pin insertion in the center of the heated region is an effective way to improve the thermal performance; also, using a larger pin results in a lower thermal resistance and a greater pressure drop. To evaluate overall performance, the heat sink effectiveness factor which represents a combination of the hydraulic and thermal performance was defined and corresponding figures were provided to derive an optimum geometry.