Optimization of Heat Sink Design

Economic Optimization of Heat Sink Design

INTRODUCTION

This paper describes the analysis and derivation of an optimum heat

sink design for maximizing the thermoelectric cooling performance

of a laboratory liquid chiller. The methods employed consisted of

certain key changes in the design of the heat sink in order to improve

its thermal performance. Parametric studies were performed in order

to determine the optimized cooling system design per dollar."

"The objective of this project was to analyze the thermal performance

of an initial simple heat sink design and improve cooling

performance while reducing the cost and overall size of the cooling

system. Several changes were examined in an effort to improve the

thermal performance and/or to reduce overall cost. The result

obtained has provided some guidelines for the selection/design of the

most effective and economical heat sink configuration. These results

were somewhat surprising since they are contrary to what one might

instinctively expect without the benefit of the detailed analysis

presented in this paper.

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Optimization of Heat Sink Design and Fan Selection in Portable Electronics Environment

Abstract

Modern portable electronics have seen component heat loads

increasing, while the space available for heat dissipation has

decreased, both factors working against the thermal designer.

This requires that the thermal management system be optimized

to attain the highest performance in the given space. While

adding fins to the heat sink increases surface area, it also

increases the pressure drop. This reduces the volumetric airflow,

which also reduces the heat transfer coefficient. There exists a

point at which the number of fins in a given area can be optimized

to obtain the highest performance for a given fan. The primary

goal of this paper is to find the optimization points for several

different fan-heat sink designs. The secondary goal is to find a

theoretical methodology that will accurately predict the

optimization point and the expected performance.

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HOW TO CALCULATE AND SELECT A Electronic Circuit HEAT SINK

HOW TO CALCULATE AND SELECT A HEAT SINK FOR A GIVEN SOLID STATE RELAY APPLICATION

The basic structure of a Solid State Relay includes an internal power semiconductor mounted to an electrical insulator which in turn is mounted to the Solid State Relay’s base plate. To form an assembly, the SSR with an accompanying thermal interface material placed on its base plate is then torque mounted to the Heat Sink.

The thermal model representing the above configuration includes the following elements:

A.

The selected SSR with specified thermal impedance (RΘ ssr), forward voltage drop (Vf), and maximum allowed internal operating temperature (Tj).

B.

The thermal interface material placed between the SSR and the Heat Sink and its specified thermal impedance (RΘ tp).

C.

The calculated minimum Heat Sink thermal impedance rating (RΘ hs) required for proper SSR operation.

D.

The operating environment’s max ambient air temperature in °C (TA ).

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How to verify the proper Heat Sink

In certain instances, once the heat sink requirements for a SSR in a particular application have been determined and installed, it may be desirable to verify that the system does indeed provide adequate cooling to ensure reliable SSR operation.

The following is a relatively simple method to check this suitability, and essentially uses some of the calculations from SELECTING A SUITABLE HEAT SINK (above) in a reverse manner. This technique may also be used on existing systems in the field that might have been more or less “empirically” designed, to gain information on their performance and potential reliabilty. This method involves determining the temperature of the internal power devices

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