Design of Optimum Plate-Fin Natural Convective Heat Sinks

The effort described herein extends the use of least-material single rectangular plate-fin analysis to multiple fin arrays, using a composite Nusselt number correlation. The optimally spaced least-material array was also found to be the globally best thermal design. Comparisons of the thermal capability of these optimum arrays, on the basis of total heat dissipation, heat dissipation per unit mass, and space claim specific heat dissipation, are provided for several potential heat sink materials. The impact of manufacturability constraints on the design and performance of these heat sinks is briefly discussed.