a recent article from advanced thermal solutions, inc., which was also featured in coolingzone media sponsor qpedia thermal emagazine, explored new finned heat sink and tube-to-fin heat exchanger designs that the industry has developed to optimize heat transfer.
the article explores new fin geometries for heat sinks and heat exchangers. (advanced thermal solutions, inc.)
the article explained, “as the electronics industry continues to use components dissipating more and more power, new heat sink solutions must be able to accommodate large heat fluxes while keeping the same spatial dimensions. finned heat sinks and heat exchangers are largely employed in many engineering fields, and this demand spurs researchers into devising and testing new geometries for the heat sinks.”
in particular, the article focused on wavy fin designs and the impact that the design has on surface area of heat sinks and heat exchangers. by increasing the surface area through this fin array, convection cooling is maximized.
the article continued, “in general, a wavy fin heat sink should perform better under natural and forced convection due to the increased surface area created by the fins. this feature can easily be manufactured with a die. the ‘waviness’ can be adjusted to increase surface area resulting in a positive impact on thermal performance.”
the article goes on to demonstrate a number of the analytical calculations that are used to determine the heat transfer capabilities of the wavy fin geometry and how it compares to standard fin geometries that were then popular in the manufacture of heat sinks and heat exchangers.
it concluded, “in general, a wavy fin heat sink should perform better under natural and forced convection due to the increased surface area created by the fins. this feature can easily be manufactured with a die. the ‘waviness’ can be adjusted to increase surface area resulting in a positive impact on thermal performance.
“further empirical testing is warranted for the evaluation of the effects of wavy fin heat sinks, as fine meshing and a high degree of confidence is not easily obtained through simulating these profiles using commercial cfd tools.”
read more about the analytical approach to this problem at https://www.qats.com/cms/2017/05/10/fin-optimization-heat-sinks-heat-exchangers and in a white paper that ats also released at https://www.qats.com/cms/analyze-heat-transfer-compact-heat-exchangers.
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