Improvement of heat sink cooling performance by optimizing geometrical parameters: Role of fin number, height, and angle

Effective thermal management is a critical challenge in the design of modern electronic systems. This study systematically investigates the effect of heat sink geometry on thermal performance while maintaining a constant cross-sectional area. To achieve this objective, a series of numerical simulations were conducted on heat sinks with varying geometrical parameters, including fin number, fin height, and fin bending angle, under natural convection heat transfer conditions. Numerical results have been validated through comparison with existing numerical and experimental data. The results demonstrate that increasing the fin number and fin height enhances cooling performance, reducing thermal resistance by 93.79 % and 73.83 %, respectively. Among the fin bending angles examined, vertical fin configurations exhibit the most significant reductions in maximum temperature and thermal resistance. This numerical analysis highlights that fin geometry optimization can significantly improve cooling efficiency and, as a primary practical implication, facilitates the development of more compact and efficient heat sinks for cooling electronic devices without increasing the cross-sectional area. Evaluation of thermal resistance and system-level heat dissipation identifies Case 12 as the most effective configuration within the studied designs.