An application specific additive design methodology for the determination of heatsink geometry topologies

Established heatsink manufacturing processes such as extrusion and casting impose constraints on the methods used to design the heatsink. These affect both allowable geometry topologies and absolute sizes. The advent of 3D printing (additive manufacture) may remove many of these constraints, forcing us to reconsider the approach taken during design. This paper proposes and explores a new approach to heatsink design where the geometry topology is not defined a priori, but allowed to develop as part of an additive design process involving a number of sequential simulations. Two variations of the additive design process are compared.