Numerical investigation of using different arrangement of fin slides on the plate-fin heat sink performance

Abstract

Cutting fins of the plate heat sinks into multi-numbers of slides instead of one slide fin is a technique to improve the performance of the heat sink. One, two, three, and four slides have been studied numerically. The slides have been arranged in staggered arrangement. The study has been carried out on two different flow directions (impinging and parallel). The performance of the heat sink under the studied conditions has been represented through calculation of heat sink effectiveness, thermal resistance, pressure drop, pumping power, and Nusselt number. The studied range of Reynolds number is from 1333 to 5334. The results show that parallel flow gives lower thermal resistance than impinging flow for all studied cases. The pumping power required for high Reynolds number in case of parallel flow increases by around 155% with Case 4 (four slides) as compared by Case 1 (one slide), while it is slightly affected in case of impinging flow. Using three slides with impinging flow represents an acceptable decrement in thermal resistance with low change in the required pumping power. In case of parallel flow, the resulting change in the heat sink performance, as the number of slides increases, is not proportional to the large increase in the pumping power.