Augmentation of Thermal Performance of Plate Fin Heat Sink

Heat sinks are popularly used in various industrial applications to cool electrical, electronics and automobile components. They are useful in removing the heat from the surfaces at elevated temperatures. The life of such devices depends on their operating temperature. Heat sinks are important parts of thermal management systems of most of these devices eg: Diods, thyristers, high power semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits of inverters, audio amplifier, microprocessors, microcontrollers etc. In many situations where heat transfer is by free convection where convective heat transfer coefficient is low, fins are the best solution because of their less cost and trouble free operation. The weight and size of equipment are the most important parameters of design. Present day demand, the use of compact systems in every application which leads to higher packing density. The failure rate of electronic equipments increase exponentially with the temperature. Also the high thermal stresses in the solder joints of electronic components mounted on circuit boards resulting from temperature variation are major causes of failure. Therefore thermal control has become an important factor in the design and operation of electronic equipment. The most preferred method for cooling these systems is passive cooling because it is cost effective and reliable. This leads to focus on development of effective fin heat sink. To make heat sink effective, geometry and orientation of the heat sink as well as heat transfer augmentation techniques plays important role. This paper highlights the use of heat sinks in electronic cooling applications and review of related literature of improving the heat transfer performance of plate fin heat sinks by surface modifications, interrupting the boundary layer and changing the orientation.