Improvement of Thermal Performance of Pin Fin Heat Sink Using Different Types of Perforations: A Study Under Natural Convection

Improvement of thermal management can significantly enhance the coefficient of performance (COP) of the thermoelectric (TE) system which is one of the potential solutions for cooling electronic components. Since heat sinks are an integral part of all the electronic equipment, therefore, great consideration is given towards meticulous selection of heat sink for improving its reliability and performance. Various methods are being studied to improve heat transfer rates of heat sink such as microchannel, liquid cooling, nano-fluids, fin topology optimization, anodization of pins, and changing heat sink materials. Recent studies have demonstrated that perforations in pins increase the heat transfer rate of pin fin heat sink, though, the results are inadequate to infer the best geometry. Further research is hence necessary to establish the best possible combination of geometry, size, and number of perforations. The present work aims to numerically identify a heat sink configuration with maximum heat transfer rate among several configuration possibilities under laminar flow condition using ANSYS Fluent 18.2. The simulation results demonstrate that lateral perforation in fins enable higher heat transfer rate than the unmodified heat sink geometry, due to higher Nusselt number and reduced pressure drop. The parametric study also reveals that heat sink with three elliptical perforations boost heat transfer rates (about 21% higher) when compared to heat sink with solid and other perforated geometries. Furthermore, perforations reduce weight and greater effectiveness, making it more desirable for its wide-scale applications.