MAK 311E-SPRING

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HEAT SINK DESIGN PROJECT

(Reports due 7/6/2021 )

In this project, students will work on the design, analysis and optimization of a forced-air cooled
heat sink for an electronics cooling application with constant heat flux.
Report will include assumptions, and their justifications based on literature, the
design methodology, sizing and performance calculations, sketch and specifications of the
resulting design. The effect of this project on your final grade is 25 percent.

The direction of airflow is as shown in Figure 1 along with the three-dimensional view of the
transparent volume setting the size limits for the heat sink. The dimensional constraints, depth
(D), width (W) and height (H) for the sink are 45, 50 and 60 mm, respectively. The maximum
airflow rate of the fans serving the heat sink is 0.020 m3/s.

Figure 1. The flow direction and the space constraints for the heat sink.
Figure 2 shows the layers of components in a typical CMOS microprocessor encased in a
package. The chip is in intimate contact through a thin layer of thermal interface material (TIM)
with and an integral heat spreader (IHS) made of copper. The IHS spreads the power dissipated
by the chip more or less uniformly over its entire area of 30 mm x 30 mm. The heat sink is to
be attached intimately to the top of the IHS through a film of TIM. The material of the heat
sink, which fits into a 45 x 50 x 60 mm volume, including its 10 mm base, will be determined
by the project group in the most appropriate way for the design.

Figure 2. Layers of the chip assembly.

The heat sink assembly is for a server where the air temperature (Tamb) could be as high as 25°C.
The chip thermal design requires that the heat sink maintains the top of the IHS (TIHS) to be no
more than 80°C when the chip is dissipating 200 W. The heat sink is to be cooled by forced
convection air drawn from within the server. The convective heat transfer coefficient (h)
depends on the air velocity in the heat sink. The heat transfer coefficient can be estimated based
on a Nusselt number for the geometry selected and the flow regime from the literature and
textbooks. A similar approach is applicable for determining the pressure drop (Δp) across the
heat sink based on a friction coefficient (Cf) for the design and flow conditions.
Assignment
1. Select one design configuration including a layout of fins with a range of the number of
fins and fin spacing.
2. Conduct design analyses for the thermal performance of the heat sink considering its
ability to meet the design criteria. (hint: use a spreadsheet to perform parametric
analyses for the various designs)
3. Choose an appropriately sized fan for the proposed design that can compensate for the
pressure drop across the designed heat sink.
4. For the resulting design that you judge to be most suitable, provide a summary page
including an engineering drawing with basic dimensions, a specification sheet showing
the total airflow rate, finned surface efficiency, the overall thermal resistance, the
temperature at the IHS surface and the cost-based Figure of Merit (FoM) based on the
following equations:


FoM  Cost  TIHS  Tamb  
3 1

Cost  Cost material  Cost pumped-air

Cost pumped-air  P  t  celec
P  V  p / 
  0.5
where the cost of electricity is $0.05/kWh for the total operating time t of 20000 hours.
The cost of the heat sink will be determined by the project group based on the type of
material selected and prices per unit mass of the material. P is the fan power, which is
a function of flow rate V , pressure drop p , fan efficiency  and fan effectiveness ε.

5. Prepare a report summarizing your assumptions, design methodology, the items in part
(4) and comments about the advantages and disadvantages of your selected design.
6. Submit a contribution sheet along with the final report.
7. Prepare a powerpoint presentation about your design and analysis.
Please make sure that the dimensions and calculated flow conditions of the heat sink make sense
when designing the heat sink. For example, nanometer-sized fins/gaps or air velocities of
hundreds of m/s or pressure drops of the order of kPa are unacceptable. It is the project group’s
responsibility to research reasonable operating conditions for a heat sink.