The effect of fin spacing and material on the performance of a heat sink with circular pin fins

This article presents a computational study of the steady-state thermal and air-flow resistance characteristics and performance analysis through a rectangular channel with circular pin fins attached to a flat surface. The pin fins are arranged in staggered manner and the heat transfer is assumed to be conjugated in nature. The body forces and radiation effects are assumed to be negligible. The hydrodynamic and thermal behaviours are studied in detail for the Reynolds numbers varying from 200 to 1000. The heat transfer increases with an increase of the fin density along the streamwise direction. For the same surface area and pumping power, the fin materials with large thermal conductivity provide high heat transfer rate with no increase in the pressure drop. The emphasis of the present research work is not only to look into the traditional objective of maximum heat transfer in a heat exchanger, but also to obtain it with minimum pressure drop.