Numerical study of the heat sink with un-uniform fin width designs

The thermal performances of the heat sink with un-uniform fin width designs with an impingement cooling were investigated numerically. The governing equations are discretized by using a control-volume-based finite-difference method with a power-law scheme on an orthogonal non-uniform staggered grid. The coupling of the velocity and the pressure terms of momentum equations are solved by the SIMPLEC algorithm. The well-known k − ε two-equations turbulence model is employed to describe the turbulent structure and behavior. The parameters include the five Reynolds number (Re = 5000–25000), three fin heights (H = 35, 40, 45 mm), and five fin width designs (Type-1–Type-5). The objective of this study is to examine the effects of the fin shape of the heat sink on the thermal performance. The results show that the Nusselt number increases with the Reynolds number. The increment of the Nusselt number decreases gradually with the increasing Reynolds number. Furthermore, the effects of fin dimensions on the Nusselt number at high Reynolds numbers are more significant than that at low Reynolds numbers. It is also found that there is potential for optimizing the un-uniform fin width design.