Design of an optimal pin-fin heat sink with air impingement cooling

A comparative investigation between experiments and numerical simulation is presented for turbulent air impingement flow on a square pin-fin heat sink. Experiments were conducted using an aluminum heat sink subjected to a uniform heat flux by using a silicon test chip. The numerical method incorporates the κ -ϵ turbulence model. The numerical results illustrate the complex pressure gradients within the fin array. The predicted thermal resistance of the heat sink agrees well with those obtained from experiments.This study illustrates the utility of numerical experiments in the design and optimization of heat sinks.