A Computer Model To Simulate Heat Transfer InHeat Sinks

The reduction in size of modern electronic components and the accompanying reduction in size of computer casings requires optimized thermal designs for reliable electronic systems. Cooling problems related to electronic systems can be divided into the cooling of components mounted on heat sinks, components mounted on boards and environmental-level analysis. This paper will concentrate on the cooling of components with heat sinks using a finite difference simulation of the heat transfer in typical heat sink configurations. Various heat sinks were simulated to obtain the effect of the influencing parameters on the heat transfer at the boundaries. The simulated results were compared with experimental values over a range of heat dissipation in each type of heat sink. From the experiments, improved heat transfer models were developed at the boundaries to compensate for the influencing parameters such as heat sink orientation relative to gravity and by-pass air flow. It can be concluded from the results that three-dimensional simulations have distinct advantages over traditional design graphs to analyze the performance of heat sinks and should be common practice for the electronics design engineer.