Numerical Analysis on Natural Convection Heat Transfer of a Heat Sink with Cylindrical Pin Fin

Y. Z. Qin; A. N. Darus; N. A. Che Sidik

Authors

Y. Z. Qin Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
A. N. Darus Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
N. A. Che Sidik Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

Keywords:

Natural Convection , Cylindrical Pin Fin , Heat Sink , Porosity

Abstract

As technology advancement progresses in this information age or commonly known as digital age, thermal management has equally improved to keep up with demands from the electronic sector. Hence, heat sink study has become more and more prominent. Natural convection holds advantages since it is maintenance free and has zero power consumption. The purpose of this research is to study the heat transfer performance of heat sink with parametric variations of number and height of pin fin at the temperatures of 308K, 323K, 338K, 353K and 368K. In addition, the effect of porosity ranging from 0.524 to 0.960 on thermal resistance was investigated as well. The study found that heat transfer coefficient increases as the temperature difference between heat sink and ambient increases. Thermal resistance decreases when the porosity increases until it reaches the minimum and subsequently increases. The optimum porosity shown in this study is around 88%.