Graduation Semester and Year
Fall 2024
Language
English
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
First Advisor
Dr. Dereje Agonafer
Second Advisor
Dr. Abdolhossein Haji Sheikh
Third Advisor
Dr. Satyam Saini
Abstract
The constant evolution of data centers and high-power electronic systems has raised critical challenges in heat dissipation and thermal management. Single-phase immersion cooling, where electronic components are submerged in a thermally conductive but non-electrically conductive liquid (dielectric liquid), offers improved heat dissipation capabilities and emerges as a promising alternative to traditional air-cooling methods, which often fail to meet the thermal demands of densely packed, high-power systems. This study investigates and compares the thermal performance of aluminum and copper heat sinks with fin thicknesses of 0.33 mm and 0.54 mm, respectively, using finite element analysis based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A continuous heat input of 650 W was applied, and performance was assessed by varying the fin numbers and across flow rates of 3, 5, and 7 liters per minute (LPM). Copper, with a thermal conductivity of 400 W/m·K, consistently outperformed aluminum (237 W/m·K). The simulation results demonstrate that increasing the fin count from 20 to 40 significantly enhanced cooling performance, particularly for copper, where maximum temperatures remained below 74.9°C and thermal resistance dropped to 0.0487 K/W at 7 LPM. In contrast, aluminum reached a maximum temperature of 87.2°C and a thermal resistance of 0.07548 K/W under the same conditions.
Keywords
Immersion cooling, computational fluid dynamics, thermal resistance, thermal conductivity
Disciplines
Aerospace Engineering | Energy Systems | Heat Transfer, Combustion | Mechanical Engineering | Other Aerospace Engineering | Other Mechanical Engineering | Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Singh, Rimpy, "NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF FIN CONFIGURATIONS FOR ENHANCED HEAT SINK PERFORMANCE IN ALUMINUM AND COPPER MATERIALS" (2024). Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses. 1028.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/mechaerospace_theses/1028
Included in
Energy Systems Commons, Heat Transfer, Combustion Commons, Other Aerospace Engineering Commons, Other Mechanical Engineering Commons, Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Commons