Thermal Performance Evaluation of Heat Sink with  Pin Fin, Metal Foam and Dielectric Coolant

Heat sink is an essential part in the cooling system for electronic operation specifically Central Processing Unit. Various enhancement methods which include metal foam have been studied to improve cooling performance. This study aims to analyze the forced convection of 10 PPI cooper metal foam with various shapes of pin fin (square, triangular, circular, and no-pin) heat sink under dielectric coolant in a range of Reynolds number (Re = 100, 500, 1000, 1500) at heat flux, q, of 100 kW/m2. In addition, partial filled metal foam (PFMF) design is implemented to optimize the overall performance of the heat sink as compared to fully filled metal foam (FFMF) design. This numerical study is conducted by developing a 3D model in ANSYS, where accuracy is confirmed through grid independence test and validation. Result shows that the triangular pins model is having highest performance in FFMF while square pins model is the best in PFMF after considering both heat transfer and pressure drop. The reduction of metal foam decreases the friction factor, while drastically decreasing the heat transfer rate of triangular pins and no-pin models. This study serves as a new heat sink design by combining pin and metal foam for augmentation of heat transfer performance in electronic cooling system.