Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.

Heat Sink with Fins

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About the Heat Sink with Fins Application
Heat sinks are usually benchmarked with respect to their ability to dissipate heat for a given
fan curve. One possible way to carry out this type of experiment is to place the heat sink
in a rectangular channel with insulated walls. The temperature and pressure at the
channels inlet and outlet, as well as the power required to keep the heat sink base at a
given temperature, is then measured. Under these conditions, it is possible to estimate the
amount of heat dissipated by the heat sink and the pressure loss over the channel.

The purpose of this application is to carry out investigations of benchmark experiments

using modeling and simulations. For example, the amount of heat dissipated may increase
with the number of fins until the fins create such a large obstruction to the flow that the
flow decreases and lowers the amount of heat dissipated. This implies that for a given total
pressure loss over the channel, there may be optimal dimensions and a number of fins that
give the highest cooling power. This application allows you to perform such investigations.

The user interface includes the following input:

Geometry input: Change the Base width and depth and the Base thickness of the heat
sink, as well as the Number of fins, the Fin height, and the Fin thickness.
Operating conditions: Set the Inlet velocity of air to the channel, the Inlet temperature,
and the Heat source temperature (which is controlled during the experiment).
Having made the above settings, click Update Geometry, Mesh, and Compute from the
main toolbar.

Note also that you may reset all inputs to their default values. The evaluation of the results
is provided by the following functionality:

The Results section shows the Dissipated power and the Pressure loss.
Graphics: Select the Temperature Field and Velocity Field tabs to visualize the respective
fields obtained from the simulation.
Documentation: Click Report to obtain a documentation template with the input and
results from the latest simulation.

The figure below shows a screenshot of the applications user interface, highlighting the
main functionality. Note that you can also have the application send an email to a specified

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recipient when the computation is completed, using the Email Message section shown in
the figure below. This sends the report from the simulation as an attachment.
Update geometry
Reset
Input
Compute
Read
documentation
Create report

Enter input

Evaluate
results
Status and
information
about the
computation
Send email
when ready

The Embedded Model

The mathematical model is based on the formulation of the equations for the conservation
of energy expressed through two heat transfer equations: One in the aluminum heat sink
and another in the air domain. In addition, the fluid flow equations are formulated in the
air domain by the conservation of momentum, the conservation of mass, and an algebraic
equation defined in every point in the fluid for the turbulent viscosity. The heat transfer
equations are fully coupled with the fluid flow equations in the air domain and are also
described by the boundary conditions across the heat sink and air domain boundaries.

MODEL DEFINITION
The model equations are automatically formulated by the Conjugate Heat Transfer
interface for turbulent flow in the Heat Transfer Module.

You can define the temperature of air at the inlet, which is used by the application as a
boundary condition. The heat flux at the bottom of the heat sink boundary is calculated
by the application and assumes that the temperature of the heat source below the heat sink

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is kept at a constant temperature of 373.15 K for a given heat transfer coefficient. The heat
flux at the outlet is set using pure advective heat flux. All other boundary conditions for
the heat transfer problem are set to insulation boundaries by the application.

The flow problem defines an inlet average velocity that you can set as an input. The
application automatically sets the outlet pressure to atmospheric pressure. All other
boundaries are no-slip wall boundaries.

The figure below illustrates the model definition with respect to the geometry. The
properties of air and aluminum are set by the Material Library in COMSOL Multiphysics.
Air outlet

Air domain

Air inlet Aluminum domain

Heat flux over a thin conductive film

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RESULTS
The heat flux at the bottom of the heat sink is given by the simulation results. It is
calculated by the application as a derived value according to the following expression:

q n = h ( T T0 ) (1)

Here, q denotes the heat flux, n the normal vector to the surface, and T0 the temperature
of the heat source, which is set to 373.15 K by the application. The heat flux is then
integrated over the bottom surface of the heat sink to give the total amount of dissipated
power, which is shown in the applications user interface after a simulation.

The figure below shows an example with two different numbers of heat fins. Note that the
dissipated power increases with the number of fins. However, the pressure loss over the
channel also increases; the pressure loss is almost doubled while the dissipated power
increases by 22%. The trick is to find an optimal number of fins at a given pressure loss, or
in a range of acceptable losses.

Number of fins: 5 Number of fins: 9

Dissipated power: 5.47 W Dissipated power: 6.69 W
Pressure loss: 1.49 Pa Pressure loss: 2.17 Pa

Application Library path: Heat_Transfer_Module/Demo_Applications/

heat_sink_with_fins

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