Numerical analysis of micro-pin-fin heat sink cooling in the mainboard chip of a CPU

Abstract

The cooling capability of heat sinks is important for a central processing unit (CPU). In this work, simulation has been done to investigate heat transfer (HT) in a heat sink (HS) mounted on the circular cylinder chip of a CPU that is studied and to explore the thermofluid behavior of the designed micro-pin-fin heat sink (MPFHS). Air cooling methods are used for heat extraction. This numerical work considers the effects of inlet turbulence intensity (TI) and fin diameter (D) of the micro-pin-fin on the performance of the HS. Turbulent SST model is used to explore turbulence regime in the system. The HT and pressure coefficient were obtained at different Reynolds number (Re) (i.e., different inlet velocities). As shown in this study, the Nusselt number (Nu) rises with the increase in air flow velocity which enhances the heat extraction from CPU.