Optimization of Pool Boiling Heat Sinks Including the Effects of Confinement in the Interfin Spaces

Abstract

A finite element analysis approach is developed and used to efficiently evaluate and optimize the boiling performance of longitudinal rectangular plate fin heat sinks, including the explicit dependence of fin spacing on boiling heat transfer coefficients and on the critical heat flux (CHF). Polished silicon heat sinks are shown to dissipate at nearly five times the CHF limit of the unfinned base area and outperform comparable aluminum heat sinks by a factor of 2. For optimum heat sink geometries, over the parameter ranges explored, the fin thickness is found to be approximately equal to the fin spacing, and the relationship between the optimum thickness and spacing is demonstrated to be relatively insensitive to the fin thermal conductivity. Results suggest that even greater performance enhancements may be gained with appropriately-selected advanced materials.