Experimental and numerical investigation of thermal-hydraulic performance of bi-metallic (Al-Cu) plate fin heat sink

Abstract

In this research, an experimental study of thermal-hydraulic performance of bi-metallic (Al-Cu) plate fin heat sink (PFHS) under forced convection in wind tunnel is investigated. The key parameters such as pressure drop, Reynolds and Nusselt numbers, heat transfer coefficient, thermal resistance, power pumping and profit factor have studied. Then the PFHS has simulated and the results have validated with test. A good agreement is seen in the results of pressure drop between test and simulation. The results show an increase of performance of the applied bi-metal sink compared with similar single aluminum one in available literature. Finally, in order to improve the thermal behavior of PFHS, porous materials have been used in numerical simulation. Because of using a porous layer in the fin spaces, the pressure drop has been increased in comparison with the normal state. Thus, pumping power has increased which means the more energy consumption is needed for the cooling process so the profit factor is decreased. On the other hand, the amount of thermal resistance is decreased by 12% compared with bi-metallic PFHS without porous materials. The results of this study could be used as the fundamental of the future researches.