Thermal performance of aluminum-foam heat sinks by forced air cooling

Experiments have been carried out to investigate the heat transfer characteristics from aluminum-foam heat sink placed on a beat source in a channel. Thermal performance of aluminum-foam heat sinks is evaluated in terms of the Nusselt number and thermal resistance of heat sinks. The pore density of aluminum-foam heat sinks and the Reynolds number are varied in the range of the parameters: 10, 20, 40 pores per inch (PPI) and 710 less than or equal to Re less than or equal to 2900, respectively. It is found that thermal resistance is substantially reduced by employing an aluminum-foam heat sink with low pore density due to relatively intense airflow through the heat sink. The aluminum-foam heat-sink may provide 28% or higher thermal performance than a conventional parallel-plate heat sink of the same size. Further, the aluminum-foam heat sinks can dramatically reduce the overall-mass of electronics-cooling devices owing to high porosity.