A novel heat dissipation fin design applicable for natural convection augmentation

In this study, a comparative study of heat sink having various fin assembly under natural convection is investigated. The fin pattern includes a rectangular, a trapezoidal and an inverted trapezoidal configuration. Tests were performed in a well controlled environmental chamber having a heat load ranging from 3 to 20 W. From the test results, the heat transfer coefficient of the conventional rectangular fins is higher than that of the trapezoidal fins while the heat transfer coefficient of the inverted trapezoidal fins is higher than the trapezoidal one by approximately 25%, and it exceeds that of convectional rectangular fin by about 10%. The heat transfer improvements of the inverted trapezoidal fin are mainly associated with a larger temperature difference and inducing more air flow into the heat sink. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.