Evaluation of Conical Pin Fin Arrangements on Heat Sink Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics
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Abstract
This study experimentally evaluates the thermal and hydraulic performance of conical pin-fin heat sinks under varying airflow rates, power inputs, and fin spacing configurations. Four heat sink designs were fabricated from aluminum alloy 6061-T6 and tested in an open-loop wind tunnel. Key performance metrics, including the Nusselt number and apparent friction factor, were assessed across Reynolds numbers ranging from 10,480 to 23,900 and power inputs of 180, 285 and 480 W. Results indicate that the configuration with a longitudinal-to-transverse pitch ratio (R) of 1 achieved the highest thermal performance, enhancing the Nusselt number by up to 19.4% compared to other arrangements. In contrast, the R = 2 configuration exhibited the highest friction factor due to increased flow resistance. Experimental outcomes were validated using established correlations from Zukauskas, Colburn, and Jacob, showing strong agreement. These findings support the design optimization of heat sinks for efficient thermal management in electronic applications.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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