electronics-amplifier tutorial

This paper describes the analysis and derivation of an optimum heat

sink design for maximizing the thermoelectric cooling performance

of a laboratory liquid chiller. The methods employed consisted of

certain key changes in the design of the heat sink in order to improve

its thermal performance. Parametric studies were performed in order

to determine the optimized cooling system design per dollar."

"The objective of this project was to analyze the thermal performance

of an initial simple heat sink design and improve cooling

performance while reducing the cost and overall size of the cooling

system. Several changes were examined in an effort to improve the

thermal performance and/or to reduce overall cost. The result

obtained has provided some guidelines for the selection/design of the

most effective and economical heat sink configuration. These results

were somewhat surprising since they are contrary to what one might

instinctively expect without the benefit of the detailed analysis

presented in this paper.

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Modern portable electronics have seen component heat loads

increasing, while the space available for heat dissipation has

decreased, both factors working against the thermal designer.

This requires that the thermal management system be optimized

to attain the highest performance in the given space. While

adding fins to the heat sink increases surface area, it also

increases the pressure drop. This reduces the volumetric airflow,

which also reduces the heat transfer coefficient. There exists a

point at which the number of fins in a given area can be optimized

to obtain the highest performance for a given fan. The primary

goal of this paper is to find the optimization points for several

different fan-heat sink designs. The secondary goal is to find a

theoretical methodology that will accurately predict the

optimization point and the expected performance.

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