Convective heat transfer and pressure losses across novel heat sinks fabricated by Selective Laser Melting

This study presents the thermal and fluid flow characteristics of five heat sinks that have been fabricated by a rapid manufacturing technique known as Selective Laser Melting. The five heat sinks consist of two conventional designs, the cylindrical pin and rectangular fin array, for comparison purposes, and three novel heat sinks: a staggered elliptical array; a lattice; and a rectangular fin array with rounded corners. The experimental results for the rectangular fin were compared with data from the literature and were found to be consistent. The rectangular fin with rounded corners proved able to transfer the largest amount of heat whilst improving upon the pressure drop performance of the standard rectangular fin array. Although the lattice arrangement made use of the fabrication process’ ability to manufacture heat sinks with high surface area to volume ratios, its performance was limited by the lack of interaction between the cooling air and structure. In terms of both heat transfer performance and pressure drop, the staggered elliptical array, which cannot be manufactured by conventional techniques, outperformed the other heat sinks.