Publication Details
Abstract
The results of the extensive thermal-hydraulic performance investigation carried out in this study were determined by using a combination of computational and experimental methods to investigate the thermal-hydraulic performance of the Plate-Fin Heat Sink (PFHS), which has been enhanced with transverse copper baffles. The investigation was conducted using a Reynolds number (Re) range of 1013 to 3832 under a variety of (80-120 W) heat loads to assess the effectiveness of modulating the flow for the purpose of enhancing heat transfer. In order to validate the CFD model with the experimental data, three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling was used with the standard k-epsilon turbulence formulation. Validation of the CFD model resulted in an average deviation of 4.75% from the experimental data, indicating that the CFD model provided an accurate representation of the experimental results. The results of the investigation indicate that the copper baffles significantly disrupt the thermal boundary layer and induce flow splitting, and therefore function as effective vortex generators. As a result of the baffled configuration, the maximum thermal resistance was reduced by 12.9%. The average enhancement in Nusselt number (Nu) compared to the unbaffled PFHS was 7.7% - 8.9%. Through testing, researchers showed a steady increase in heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for an experimental fluid as their Reynolds number increased from 1013 to 3832 because the increase in HTC resulted from the suppression of the thermal boundary layer and the improvement of fluid mixing.