A Novel Plate Fin Heat Sink Design With Rectangular Slots and Interruptions: A Computational Approach

In the present work, we have studied the performance of vertical plate finned heat sinks that protrude from a vertical base. The difference between the heat sink base temperature and the ambient, i.e., ΔT, has been varied in the range of 10 °C to 60 °C, and the flow undergoes a natural convection regime. To enhance the thermal performance, we have explored different configurations of the heat sink by providing rectangular slots, varying the neck thickness, changing the neck location from the fin base, and providing interruptions along the fin height. The pertinent quantities, i.e., heat dissipation rate, Nusselt number, effectiveness, mass of heat sink, and heat dissipation per unit mass, have been obtained by performing 3D computational simulations. The results obtained are compared to assess the thermal performance of heat sinks. We found that among various designs of heat sinks proposed, the heat sink with two slots, with the location of neck closer to the fin base (x_m = 9 mm), and with interrupted fins dissipates maximum heat (12.86% more compared to the commonly used rectangular plate finned heat sink). In addition to the heat transfer improvement, 19.82% mass reduction has also been achieved. Based on the simulation data, we have proposed a correlation for the mean Nusselt number as a function of relevant non-dimensional parameters.