Artificial Neural Network to Predict Pressure Drops in Heat Sinks

– In this study, pressure drop ( ) across air-cooled heat sinks (HSs) are predicted using an artificial neural network (ANN). A multilayer feed-forward ANN architecture with two hidden layers is developed. Backpropagation algorithm is used for training the network, and the accuracy of the network is evaluated by the root mean square error. The input data for training the neural network is prepared through three-dimensional simulation of air inside the channels of heat sinks using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The developed ANN-based model in this study predicts with a high accuracy and within of the CFD-based data. The present study suggests that developing an ANN-based model with a high level of accuracy overcomes the limitations of physics-based correlations that their accuracy strongly depends on identifying and implementing key variables that affect the physics of a thermo-fluid phenomenon.