Orientation effect on natural convective performance of square pin fin heat sinks

Experiments are carried out on natural convection heat transfer from square pin fin heat sinks subject to the influence of orientation. A flat plate and seven square pin fin heat sinks with various arrangements are tested under a controlled environment. Test results indicate that the downward facing orientation yields the lowest heat transfer coefficient. However, the heat transfer coefficients for upward and sideward facing orientations are of comparable magnitude. Depending on the fin structure, the performance of these two orientations shows a competitive nature. It is found that the sideward arrangement outperforms the upward one for small finning factors below 2.7, beyond which the situation is reversed. In addition, with the gradual increase in the finning factor, the performance of sideward arrangement approaches that of downward arrangement. Aside from the finning factor, the heat sink porosity has a secondary effect on the pin fin performance. The comparison among three orientations shifts in favour of upward and sideward arrangements with raising the heat sink porosity in consequence of reducing the flow resistance. The optimal heat sink porosity is around 83% for the upward arrangement and is around 91% for the sideward arrangement. In particular, the addition of surface is comparatively more effective for the downward arrangement whereas it is less effective for the sideward arrangement. This argument is supported by showing that the augmentation factor, defined as the heat transfer of a heat sink relative to that of a flat plate, is around 1.1–2.5 for the upward arrangement, around 0.8–1.8 for the sideward arrangement, and around 1.2–3.2 for the downward arrangement.     

Natural convection heat transfer from a heat sink with hollow/perforated circular pin fins

Experiments were performed on natural convection heat transfer from circular pin fin heat sinks subject to the influence of its geometry, heat flux and orientation. The geometric dependence of heat dissipation from heat sinks of widely spaced solid and hollow/perforated circular pin fins with staggered combination, fitted into a heated base of fixed area is discussed. Over the tested range of Rayleigh number, 3.8 × 10⁶ ≤ Ra ≤ 1.65 × 10⁷, it was found that the solid pin fin heat sink performance for upward and sideward orientations shows a competitive nature, depending on Rayleigh number and generally shows higher heat transfer coefficients than those of the perforated/hollow pin fin ones in both arrangement. For all tested hollow/perforated pin fin heat sinks, however, the performance for sideward facing orientation was better than that for upward facing orientation. This argument is supported by observing that the augmentation factor was around 1.05–1.11, depending on the hollow pin diameter ratio, D_i/D_o. Meanwhile, the heat sink of larger hollow pin diameter ratio, D_i/D_o offered higher heat transfer coefficient than that of smaller D_i/D_o for upward orientation, and the situation was reversed for sideward orientation. The heat transfer performance for heat sinks with hollow/perforated pin fins was better than that of solid pins. The temperature difference between the base plate and surrounding air of these heat sinks was less than that of solid pin one and improved with increasing D_i/D_o.     

Air side performance at low Reynolds number of cross-flow heat exchanger using crimped spiral fins

A total of 23 cross-flow heat exchangers having crimped spiral configurations is studied. The effect of tube diameter, fin spacing, transverse tube pitch, and tube arrangements are examined. For the inline arrangement, the pressure drop increases with the rise of tube diameter but the associated heat transfer coefficient decreases with it. The increase of fin height also gives rise to considerable increase of pressure drop and decrease of heat transfer coefficients for the inline arrangement. However, for the staggered arrangement, the effect of the fin height on the pressure drop is much smaller than that of the inline arrangement due to the major contribution to the total pressure drops from the blockage of the airflow from staggered arrangement. Effect of the fin spacing on the air side performance is strongly related to the transverse tube pitch for both inline and staggered arrangements. Correlations of the present crimped spiral fins in both staggered and inline arrangements are developed. The proposed correlations give fairly good predictive ability against the present test data.     

Convective heat transfer and pressure losses across novel heat sinks fabricated by Selective Laser Melting

This study presents the thermal and fluid flow characteristics of five heat sinks that have been fabricated by a rapid manufacturing technique known as Selective Laser Melting. The five heat sinks consist of two conventional designs, the cylindrical pin and rectangular fin array, for comparison purposes, and three novel heat sinks: a staggered elliptical array; a lattice; and a rectangular fin array with rounded corners. The experimental results for the rectangular fin were compared with data from the literature and were found to be consistent. The rectangular fin with rounded corners proved able to transfer the largest amount of heat whilst improving upon the pressure drop performance of the standard rectangular fin array. Although the lattice arrangement made use of the fabrication process’ ability to manufacture heat sinks with high surface area to volume ratios, its performance was limited by the lack of interaction between the cooling air and structure. In terms of both heat transfer performance and pressure drop, the staggered elliptical array, which cannot be manufactured by conventional techniques, outperformed the other heat sinks.     

Single-Phase Cryogenic Flow and Heat Transfer Through Microscale Pin Fin Heat Sinks

Single-phase heat transfer and pressure drop of liquid nitrogen in microscale heat sinks are studied experimentally in this paper. Effects of geometrical variations are characterized on the thermofluidic performance of staggered microscale pin fin heat sinks. Pitch-to-diameter ratio and aspect ratio of the micro pin fins are varied. The pin fins have square shape with 200 or 400 μm width and are oriented at 45 degrees to the flow direction. Thermal performance of the heat sinks is evaluated for Reynolds numbers (based on pin fin hydraulic diameter) from 108 to 570. Results are presented in a nondimensional form in terms of friction factor, Nusselt number, and Reynolds number and are compared with the predictions of existing correlations in the literature for micro pin fin heat sinks. Comparison of flow and heat transfer performance of the micro pin fin heat sinks reveals that at a particular critical Reynolds number of ～250, pin fin heat sinks with the same aspect ratio but larger pitch ratio show a transition in both friction factor and Nusselt number. In order to better characterize this transition, visualization experiments were performed with the Fluorinert PF5060 using an infrared camera. At the critical Reynolds number, for the larger pitch ratio pin fin heat sink, surface thermal intensity profiles suggest periodic flapping of the flow behind the pin fins at a Strouhal number of 0.227.     

Numerical Evaluation of Flow and Heat Transfer in Plate-Pin Fin Heat Sinks with Various Pin Cross-Sections

A numerical investigation of the thermal and hydraulic performance of 20 different plate-pin fin heat sinks with various shapes of pin cross-sections (square, circular, elliptic, NACA profile, and dropform) and different ratios of pin widths to plate fin spacing (0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6) was performed. Finite volume method-based CFD software, Ansys CFX, was used as the 3-D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes Solver. A k-ω based shear-stress-transport model was used to predict the turbulent flow and heat transfer through the heat sink channels. The present study provides original information about the performance of this new type of compound heat sink.     

基于遗传算法的燃气轮机叶片内部柱肋蒸汽冷却通道的优化分析

针对叶片尾缘内部柱肋冷却方式进行数值仿真和优化分析。采用CFX软件进行数值仿真计算,建立圆形柱肋、水滴形柱肋和正方形柱肋3种柱肋形状下,不同柱肋间距的矩形通道模型,验证数值模型的正确性以及网格无关性。分析了顺排和叉排的排列方式下,柱肋形状和柱肋间距对下底面努塞尔数以及整个通道内压力损失的影响,最后通过MATLAB的遗传算法对仿真结果进行优化。研究表明：柱肋模型中,横向和纵向柱肋间距最小时,换热效果最佳,压力损失最大;在顺排和叉排中,正方形柱肋对通道的换热强度的提升效果最明显,圆形柱肋提升效果最小。     

The hydraulic‐thermal performance of miniature compact heat sinks using SiO2‐water nanofluids

Ever since the rapid increase in both the demand for the miniature electronic devices and their applications, heat dissipation in the electronic components has been a serious issue. A miniature plate‐pin heat sink model with square, circular, and elliptic pins is considered to enhance the hydrothermal performance of this kind of compact heat sink (CHS). Water and 3% of SiO₂‐water nanofluids of volume fraction were used with different Reynolds number ranges (100‐1000). The findings show that the base temperature of heat sink reduces while the Nusselt number enhances by using nanofluids and increasing Reynolds number. The lowest value of the base temperature is nearly 25% for the square pins and circular pins CHSs compared with a plate–fin heat sink at 3% of nanofluids. Furthermore, the highest value of the Nusselt number is about 98% at 3% SiO₂ for circular pin CHSs compared with the plate–fin heat sink. However, the pressure drop of CHSs is higher than that of plate–fin heat sink. Moreover, the most significant hydrothermal performance value is about 1.44 for water and around 1.51 for SiO₂ as using the CHS with circular and elliptic pins depends on the Reynolds number. Thus, applying CHSs with nanofluids instead of the traditional heat sinks might produce a substantial enhancement in the hydrothermal performance of heat sinks.     

An Extension of the Flow Boiling Correlation to Transition,Laminar, and Deep Laminar Flows in Minichannels and Microchannels

The thermal performance of rectangular plate fins circumscribing elliptic tubes is presented in this paper. Based on the assumption of uniform convective heat transfer the two-dimensional conduction equation has been formulated, and the solution has been obtained through the finite element method. Performance of rectangular plate fins for both inline and staggered arrangement of tubes has been investigated for a variation of geometric and thermo-geometric parameters. The necessity of optimizing the fin geometry for a given fin surface area has also been highlighted.     

Experiments and modeling of the hydraulic resistance and heat transfer of in-line square pin fin heat sinks with top by-pass flow

In pin-fin heat sinks, the flow within the core exhibits separation and hence does not lend itself to simple analytical boundary layer or duct flow analysis of the wall friction. In this paper, we present some findings from an experimental and modeling study aimed at obtaining physical insight into the behavior of square, in-line pin fin heat sinks. In addition to the detailed pressure measurements, the overall thermal resistance was measured as a function of Reynolds number and by-pass height. A “two-branch by-pass model” was developed, in which a one-dimensional difference approach was used to model the fluid flow through the heat sink and its top by-pass duct. Inlet and exit pressure losses were as important as the core pressure drop in establishing the overall flow and pressure drop. Comparisons were made with the data using friction and heat transfer coefficients available in the literature for infinitely long tube bundles of circular cross-section. It was shown that there is a good agreement between the temperature predictions based on the model and the experimental data at high approach velocities for tall heat sinks, however the discrepancy increases as the approach velocity and heat sink height decrease. The validated model was used to identify optimum pin spacing as a function of clearance ratio.     

Numerical estimation of pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics in annular‐finned channel heat exchangers with different channel configurations

In this numerical investigation, three‐dimensional analysis has been used to study the effect of finned channels configuration of (circular, square, and triangular shape) and fin spacing with four rows in staggered arrangements. The finite volume method with k‐ ω turbulent model is applied to estimate the heat transfer and flow characteristics. The results illustrate that the development of the boundary layer between the fins surfaces is credited to the finned channels configuration, fin spacing, and Reynolds number. Moreover, the results of pressure drop and heat transfer with various channel configuration and different fin spacings (1.6, 2, and 4 mm) are presented and validated with the available correlations. The triangular‐finned channel with 1.6 mm fin spacing offered higher heat transfer enhancement followed by square‐ and circular‐finned channels. A considerable agreement was observed when the current findings and the existing correlations were compared, with a maximum deviation of 15% for all the cases.     

阵列射流冲击冷却传热特性的数值研究

以涡轮叶片冷却技术为背景,采用带转捩的剪切应力输运(Transition SST)模型对阵列射流冲击冷却的传热特性进行数值模拟,分析了冲击Re、冲击间距、初始横向流和冲击孔排列方式的影响规律。结果表明:冲击间距对靶面平均Nu的影响存在最优值,在所计算的范围内,Zn/d=2时平均Nu最大;在冲击孔排列方式影响中,当冲击间距Zn/d≤2时,顺排孔冲击冷却传热效果优于错排,而当Zn/d≥3时,错排孔冷却传热效果优于顺排。     

Thermal Analysis for Heat Transfer Enhancement in Perforated Pin Fins of Various Shapes with Staggered Arrays

The present work investigates the enhancement of heat transfer rate through staggered pin fins of different shapes with different perforation geometries, namely circular, diamond shaped and elliptical type. Three dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation has been carried out to analyze the effects of fin geometry and dimension of perforation as well as the shape of fin to enhance heat transfer rate against pressure loss. Results show that the heat transfer rates of perforated fins up to certain perforation number and size are always greater than the solid ones and with the change of fin shape and perforation geometry heat transfer rate also improves significantly. On the other hand pressure drop through heat sink decreases not only with increasing perforation number but also with the size of perforation. Moreover, variation of pressure drop of perforated fins is influenced with fin geometry.     

Numerical simulation and optimization of turbulent flows through perforated circular pin fin heat sinks

In this study, the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of turbulent forced convection of air flow through perforated circular pin fin heat sinks with constant heat flux are investigated numerically. Circular perforated pin fins are shown to have 8% larger averaged Nusselt numbers than the corresponding solid pin cases. In addition, after the validation of the numerical results, the numerical optimization of this problem is also presented by using the response surface methodology (RSM) coupled with genetic algorithm (GA). The difference between the optimal thermal performance factor (η) which is calculated by regression function and obtained by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is less than 2%, and the numerical optimization shows that the enhancement of the objective function (η) can achieve 34%.     

Pressure Loss and Heat Transfer Through Heat Sinks Produced by Selective Laser Melting

Heat removal from electronic packages is often assisted with the use of heat sinks whose heat transfer surfaces come in a variety of forms such as cylindrical pins, flat fins, and corrugated sheet. These conventional designs are manufactured by traditional methods such as forging, machining, casting, stamping and bending, or a combination of processes. This article introduces a novel manufacturing technique, selective laser melting (SLM), and demonstrates its ability to fabricate new designs of heat sink that have not previously been considered, primarily due to their geometric complexity. Three novel finned structures have been manufactured and their thermal and fluid flow characteristics have been determined experimentally. The three heat sinks demonstrate selective laser melting's ability to produce fine detail and consist of a staggered elliptical array, an elliptical array where the pins are angled in a direction perpendicular to the flow, and a densely packed diamond array. The novel heat sink designs were compared to a cylindrical pin array manufactured using the SLM process as well as with pin fin data from the literature. The heat sinks produced by the SLM method have been shown to have superior performance to that of the conventional heat sinks. Although the angled elliptical fins transmit similar amounts of heat to the cylindrical pin fins across the range of air flow rates considered, they incur a lower pressure loss. The densely packed diamond array not only transfers 60% more heat than the cylindrical array, but does so with a lower pressure drop across it.     

Optimization of short micro pin fins in minichannels

Finned minichannels are modeled in order to optimize microstructure geometry and maximize heat transfer dissipation through convection from a heated surface. Six pin fin shapes – circle, square, triangle, ellipse, diamond and hexagon – are used in a staggered array and attached to the bottom heated surface of a rectangular minichannel and analyzed. Also, using square pin fins, different channel clearance over fins are investigated to optimize the fin height of the fins with respect to that of the channel. Fin width and spacing are investigated using a ratio of fin width area to the channel width. Fin material is then varied to investigate the heat dissipation effects. Triangular fins with larger fin height, smaller fin width, and spacing double the fin width maximizes the number of fins in each row and yields better performance. Correlations describing the Nusselt number and the Darcy friction factor are obtained and compared to previous ones from recent studies. These correlations only apply to short fins in the laminar regime. Completely understanding the effects of micro pin fins in a minichannel is essential to maximizing the performance in small scale cooling apparatuses to keep up with future electronic advancements.     

Combustion characteristics and thermal enhancement of premixed hydrogen/air in micro combustor with pin fin arrays

Targeted at improving the combustion stability and enhancing heat transfer in micro combustor, the combustion characteristics and thermal performance of micro combustor with pin fin arrays are numerically investigated by employing detail H₂/O₂ reaction mechanism. It is shown that the micro combustor with staggered pin fin arrays exhibits the highest average temperature and heat flux of external wall, while the micro combustor with in-line pin fin arrays displays the most uniform temperature distribution of external wall. When the equivalence ratio is 1.1, all micro combustors exhibit the highest mean temperature and heat flux of external wall. The micro combustor materials with high thermal conductivity can not only improve the average temperature and heat flux of external wall, but also enhance heat transfer to the upstream which can preheat the mixed gas. Therefore, the materials with high thermal conductivity, such as red copper and aluminum, can make up for the nonuniform temperature distribution of micro combustor with staggered pin fin arrays, so as to realize uniform high heat flux output of external wall.     

Natural convection about a cylindrical pin element on a horizontal plate

Numerical study of laminar free convection about a single pin fin attached to a horizontal base plate has been reported in this article. Fluid at the far field moves horizontally towards the fin and then rises almost vertically along the fin and finally leaves through the top. With the increase in fin diameter heat transfer increases while the heat flux at fin base decreases establishing the advantage of large number of small diameter fins over fewer fins of bigger diameter. Correlation has been developed to predict the base heat flux for a given fin diameter to length ratio and Grashof number. This may be used to estimate the upper limit of free convection heat transfer from any horizontal heat sink with an array of circular pin elements.     

Research on the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement in microchannel heat sinks with micropin fins

In this paper, the pressure drop and heat transfer features of a microchannel applying micropin fins are investigated by numerical simulations and experiments. The microchannel, which is 20-mm long, 2.7-mm wide, and 0.3-mm deep, is fabricated with copper and consisted of staggered diamond micropin fins. The visualization experiments, by means of the advanced technology micro-particle image velocimetry (PIV), are conducted to discuss the mechanism of heat transfer by analysing the flow regimes. Meanwhile, 3D-coupled numerical simulations are applied for the combination with experiments in this research. It is found that the vortex-wake flow is stable at Reynolds number (Re) = 0 to 300, and a steady recirculating zone can be observed in the wake, where a pair of symmetrical vortices is formed. All the time, the vortex-wake flow is unstable at Re = 300 to 650. Under this situation, it is due to the decrease of vorticity that the Nusselt number (Nu) is not significantly increased as it was expected. Thus, when Nu in the pin fin microchannel is predicted, the vorticity should be considered as well as turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). Furthermore, comparative study was carried out based on the mechanism proposed in this study among three kinds of microchannel with different fins, including staggered circular pin fins (CPF), square pin fins (SPF), and diamond pin fins (DPF).     

Flow structure and heat transfer characteristics of a 90°-turned pin-finned wedge duct with dimples at different locations

In this study, numerical simulations are performed to investigate the effect of dimple location on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics in a 90°-turned channel with pin fins. Results of the flow structure, heat transfer on the endwall, and friction factor are included in this study. It is found that the dimple location has an impact on the flow structure and heat transfer both for the pin fins arranged with in-line and staggered layout. The horseshoe vortex near the pin fin is influenced by the location of the dimple. The dimple enhances the Nusselt number on the endwall surface significantly. In addition, the dimple location has an effect on the low-speed recirculation, impingement, and vortex which are generated by the dimple. However, the dimple has very limited effects on the friction factor for all cases. It is also found that the area goodness factor and volume goodness factor are improved by the dimple.