Active CFD simulation of the heat

Active heat sinks are important cooling parts, present in most electronic devices. Through a large number of fins, it extracts as much heat as possible from the air flowing through the fan and heat sink. Traditionally, by not considering the installed system, its efficiency, as well as its fan performance, heat sinks are inaccurately modeled, despite the fact that the environment can significantly impact the cooling performance of the device.

The complexity of the air flow inside the electronics cooling system results in a non-uniform flow throughout the active heat sink. This approximation of the air flow through the fins is further increased by the use of fan curves that can oversimplify the effect of the fan, neglecting the impact of the system geometry. An explicit modeling of the fan within the active heat sink, including all of the blade details, as an integral part of the global system model, dramatically increases the accuracy of the model. A more realistic description of the system design leads to more accurate evaluation of the heat sink performance, which will result in a better system design.

Advanced necessary technologies available in Fluent products include the import and meshing of complex fan and fins geometries, as well as the modeling of complex turbulent flow patterns. These technologies combine with advanced thermal modeling involving conduction, convection and radiation to accurately estimate the heat extraction rate.

Active heat sink with fan details

Air flow through an active heat sink, non-uniform flow through fins results in non-uniform temperature variation across fins

Air flow through a dual inlet active heat sink, contours are of velocity magnitude

Top view of an active heat sink showing resulting flow distribution between fins

Transient sliding mesh analysis