Optimal Design for PPF Heat Sinks in Electronics Cooling Applications

Abstract

An effective method for predicting and optimizing the thermal performance of heat sinks with Parallel-Plain Fin under a given design constraint of pressure drop has been successfully developed in the study. The thermal and hydrodynamic performance analyzers for PPF heat sinks have been developed. A screening experimental design using the Taguchi method is performed to determine key factors that are critical to the design and screen out unimportant design factors; and a Response Surface Methodology is then applied to establish analytical models for the thermal resistance and pressure drop in terms of the key design factors with a CCD experimental design. By employing the Sequential Quadratic Programming technique, a series of constrained optimal designs can be efficiently performed. Comparisons between these predicted optimal designs and those evaluated by the theoretical calculations are made with satisfactory agreement.