CFD ANALYSIS ON A HEAT SINK BY USING

GRAPHENE
Vedulla Manoj Kumar1, Sk.Farooq2, P Hari Chandra Prasad3
1,3
Pg Scholar, 2Asst. Professor,Vignans University, Vadlamudi, Guntur, (India)

ABSTRACT
A heat sink is an electronic device made of good thermal conducting material and usually attached to an
electronic device to dissipate the unwanted heat. The development of the digital computer and its usage day by
day is rapidly increasing. But the reliability of electronic components is getting affected critically by the
temperature at which the junction operates. As operating power and speed increases, and as the designers are
forced to reduce overall systems dimensions, the problems of extracting heat and controlling temperature
becomes crucial. In the last decade or so, CFD simulations have become more and more widely used in the
studies of electronic cooling. In this paper the CFD simulation and Thermal analysis is carried out for heat sink
with a commercial package provided by ANSYS-FLUENT. Here we are using graphene as a heat sink material
because it has a number of properties which makes it interesting for several different applications. It is an
ultimately thin, mechanically very strong, transparent and flexible conductor.

Keywords: Heat sink, CFD, Electronic cooling, ANSYS-Fluent, Graphene.

I. INTRODUCTION

Electronic equipment has made its way into practically every aspect of modern life, from toys and appliances to
high-power computers. With this technology, these devices (electronic appliances and products) are capable of
processing more data within a given period of time and the system performance is therefore regarded as higher.
The larger the amount of data the system processes at a time, the greater the amount of heat it generates. The
performance of these devices is directly related to the temperature; therefore it is a crucial issue to maintain the
electronics at acceptable temperature levels. The rising demand for high performance and multiple functionality
in electronic systems and devices continue to be the current great challenges in their thermal management.

Fig (1). Active and Passive Heat Sinks

Most electronic devices operate for long periods of time, and thus their cooling mechanism is designed for
steady operation. But electronic devices in some applications never run long enough to reach steady operation.

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In such cases, it may be sufficient to use a limited cooling technique, such as thermal storage for a short period,
or not to use one at all. Transient operation can also be caused by large swings in the environmental conditions.
A common cooling technique for transient operation is to use a double-wall construction for the enclosure of the
electronic equipment, with the space between the walls filled with a wax with a suitable melting temperature. As
the wax melts, it absorbs a large amount of heat and thus delays overheating of the electronic components
considerably.
The heat sink operation is based on Fourier’s law of heat. Whenever a temperature gradient exists in a body,
heat transfers from the high temperature sections to the lower temperature areas. The three different ways in
which the heat can be transferred are through radiation, convention or by conduction. Thermal conduction
occurs whenever two objects at different temperatures are in contact. This involves the collisions between the
fast molecules of the hotter object with the slow moving molecules of the colder object. This leads to the energy
transfer from the hot object to the cooler object. A heat sink thus transfers the heat from the high temperature
component such as a transistor to the low-temperature medium such as air, oil, water or any other suitable
medium through conduction and then convection.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

R.Mohan et.al [1] has performed Experimental and theoretical investigations of the thermal performance of a
variety of heat sinks have been made. The different kind of heat sinks were investigated. The parameters such as
fin geometry, fin pitch and fin height are optimized primarily in this paper and a second task is carried out to
optimize base plate thicknesses, base plate materials and modify design of heat sink for improving the thermal
performance in the next generation. In this research work, the best heat sink geometry is selected and modified
in order to reduce maximum temperature distribution and hot spots of heat sink at center by changing the
geometry design and adding one more base. They were observed that flow obstructions in the chassis and the
resulting air recirculation affect the heat sink temperature distribution.
Carlos A. Rubio-Jimenez et.al [2] has proposed a novel micro pin fin heat sink configuration with variable fin
density is proposed and analyzed. This configuration offers a reliable cooling system capable of dissipating high
heat fluxes at a low pressure drop while maintaining uniform junction temperature.
D. B. Tuckerman et.al [3] explored the pioneering concept of micro channel heat sink. They used micro
channels that had a width of 50 μm and a depth of 302 μm and showed that high heat rates of 790 W/cm2 could
be removed by silicon micro channel heat sinks using water as the cooling fluid through the micro channel.
Mathias Ekpu et.al [5] proposed an ideal heat sink material exhibits high thermal conductivity, low coefficient
of thermal expansion, low density, and low cost. Based on this four selection criteria, AI/SiC has superior
property potentials and it is recommended as a near optimum material for a laptop computer heat sink.
Denpong Soodphakdee et.al [7] proposed the heat transfer performance of various commonly used fin
geometries is compared. In all cases, staggered geometries perform better than inline. At lower values of
pressure drop and pumping power, elliptical fins work best. At higher values, round pin fins offer highest
performance.

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III. IDENTIFICATION OF PROBLEM

In the cooling enhancement of current electronic industry, heat sink is extensively used to provide cooling
function for electronics components. The most common method for cooling electronic devices is by finned heat
sinks made of aluminum. These heat sinks provide a large surface area for the dissipation of heat and
effectively reduce the thermal resistance. In order to design an effective heat sink, some criterions such as a
large heat transfer rate, a low pressure drop, an easier manufacturing, a simpler structure, a reasonable cost and
so on should be considered. Unfortunately, heat sinks often take up much space and contribute to the weight and
cost of the product. Consequently, the need for new design and more effective ways to dissipate this energy is
becoming increasingly urgent. Thus, high performance of heat sinks can be acquired through the design
optimization which maximizes heat transfer and minimizes pressure drop. To achieve an optimum design of
heat sink for an effective heat transfer a newer methodologies is to be identified for desirable heat sink.

IV. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The following are the aims and objectives of the Project

 To study of new material i.e., graphene as a heat sink material
 To compare the total heat transfer rate of passive heat sink with industrial heat sinks and experimental
heat sinks.

V. METHODOLOGY

This research paper investigates a well-known commercial application solved by CFD technique by modeling
and analyzing the cooling of a heat sink. For that there is a need of new design with a base plate material and
different compositions to enhance the rate of heat transfer and efficiency of a heat sink and this can be
comparing with experimental data. An investigation will be made regarding the temperature and pressure
distribution profiles occurred when certain thermal considerations are applied. Position, geometrical
characteristics and the number of fins will be altered to study the thermal effects.
In CFD calculations, there are three main steps: Pre-Processing, Solver Execution, Post-Processing. Pre-
Processing is the step where the modelling goals are determined and computational grid is created. In the second
step numerical models and boundary conditions are set to start up the solver. Solver runs until the convergence
is reached. When solver is terminated, the results are examined which is the post processing part.
CFD analysis
Governing equations
The following assumptions are made for the numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in the unit cell:
Steady state fluid flow and heat transfer; Laminar flow; Incompressible fluid; Negligible radiation heat transfer;
Constant solid and fluid properties. Based on these assumptions, the governing differential equations for fluid
flow and heat transfer in the unit cell are solved by Autodesk® Simulation CFD. For the liquid region, the
governing equations are continuity equation, Navier Stokes or momentum equations, and energy equation. For
solid region, the only governing equation is the energy equation.

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Navier-Stokes Equation Applying the mass, momentum and energy conservation, we can derive the continuity
equation, momentum equation and energy equation as follows.

Continuity Equation

D U i
 0
Dt xi

Momentum Equation

U j U j P  ij
  U i    g j
t
  x x x 
I
i
  V
j i
II III IV

Where

 U j U i  2 U k
 ij     

  ij 
 xi x j  3 xk
I: Local change with time
II: Momentum convection
III: Surface force
IV: Molecular-dependent momentum exchange (diffusion)
V: Mass force

Energy Equation

T T U i  2T U j
c  cU i  P   2   ij
 t

xi

xi

xi
 
xi
I II III IV V

I : Local energy change with time

II: Convective term
III: Pressure work
IV: Heat flux (diffusion)
V: Irreversible transfer of mechanical energy into heat

To simplify the Navier-Stokes equations, we can rewrite them as the general form.

     
  U i      q
t xi  xi 

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When   1,U j , T , we can respectively get continuity equation, momentum equation and energy equation.

Boundary conditions

• Base plate, fins : Graphene properties are assigned

• Base top wall : heat flux is applied [100w/cm2]

• Fin bottom, front face, left, right, rear faces (walls)

• Heat transfer to surroundings atmosphere by convection.

• Inlet (velocity inlet) : air enters into the heat sink with 10-12 m/s

• Outlet : Outlet atmospheric pressure is assigned

The properties of the solid and fluid are assigned the default values in Ansys-Fluent 2015.

Meshing and solving

As mentioned earlier, the commercial CFD code, ANSYS-FLUENT 2015 is used for the numerical simulation.
Unstructured mesh is used for meshing the physical model. Autodesk® Simulation CFD employs finite element
method for discretizing the governing partial differential equations together with the boundary conditions. The
result is a set of algebraic equations at discrete points or nodes on every element of the computational domain.
The resulting set of algebraic equations is solved to determine the values of the dependent variables at the nodes
on the finite elements.

Validation of numerical result

In order to check the validation of the results, we are comparing simulation result with experimental result.
Modelling of a heat sink
Design Specifications of heat sink
Length - 45 mm, Height - 53 mm, Fin height - 40 mm, Spacing between fins horizontal - 5 mm
Spacing between fins vertical - 5 mm, Number of fins – 35.

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 Fig (2) .Geometry of Circular pin fins heat sink
TABLE 1: Comparison analysis of different materials for heat sink
S. No Material Thermal Coefficient Density Ref
conductivity- of thermal Kg/m3
W/mK expansion
1O-6K-1
1 Aluminium 220 22-24 2700 [10]
2 SiC/Aluminium 170 – 220 6.2-7.3 3000 [10]
3 Boron/Aluminium 145 13-15 2700 [10]
4 Copper 400(390) 16-17 8960 [10]
5 Cu-coated Graphite/Cu >400 2.8-3.5 5300 [10]

6 Copper/Tungsten 180-200 6.5-8.3 10080 [10]

7 Copper/Molybdenum 170-210 5.7-6.0 8400 [11]
8 Gold 315 14 19.32 [11]
9 Molybdenum 142 4.9 10.22 [11]
10 Tungsten 155 4.5 19.3 [11]
11 Diamond 2000 0.9 3.51 [11]
12 Beryllium oxide 260 6 3 [11]
13 Aluminium nitride 320 4.5 3.3 [11]
14 Silicon carbide 270 3.7 3.3 [11]
15 Graphene 5300 0.00035 2.2 [16]

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

From this comparison analysis of different heat sink materials we should come to know that graphene is having
highest thermal conductivity, low density and low coefficient of thermal expansion so that this material is best
suitable as the heat sink material because the mobility of graphene is very high which makes the material very
interesting for electronic high frequency applications.

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VII.CONCLUSION

Graphene is the fascinating material and this material can be applicable for other applications also and the
development of this new material opens new exiting possibilities. It is the first crystalline 2D-material and it has
unique properties, which makes it interesting both for fundamental science and for future applications.

VIII. FUTURE SCOPE

Graphene can be used in applications such as touch screens, light panels and solar cells, where it can replace the
rather fragile and expensive Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO). Flexible electronics and gas sensors are other potential
applications. The quantum Hall effect in graphene could also possibly contribute to an even more accurate
resistance standard in metrology. New types of composite materials based on graphene with great strength and
low weight could also becoming interesting for use in satellites and aircrafts.

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