Optimization of plate-fin heat sink configurations for enhanced thermal performance and manufacturability

Enhancing heat sink efficiency presents a significant challenge, requiring the optimization of heat transfer performance while minimizing pressure drop across the inlet and outlet. Although previous designs have improved heat sink performance, their complex geometries have resulted in high manufacturing costs. This study introduces four novel plate-fin heat sink configurations—fillet, chamfer, step, and concave fillet—designed for enhanced manufacturability. A conjugate heat transfer model was employed to analyze forced convection heat transfer over a Reynolds number (Re) range of 500–5000, with laminar and turbulence models validated against experimental data to ensure accuracy near the interface surface. The results indicate that the k-ω turbulence model achieved excellent predictive accuracy, with an average experimental error of less than 5.07 %. Moreover, the fillet, chamfer, step, and concave fillet plate-fin heat sinks exhibited thermal enhancement efficiencies exceeding those of conventional designs at the Re = 5000 by 17.3 %, 15.9 %, 0.8 and 4.6 %, respectively. However, the step plate-fin heat sink did not yield thermal performance improvements despite a lower friction factor than the conventional design. To support future heat sink development, the optimized t/R and t/C ratios were determined to be 2.0 and 1.2 for the fillet and chamfer plate-fin heat sinks, facilitating maximum enhancement of both design and manufacturing processes.