On the role of radiation view factor in thermal performance of straight-fin heat sinks

The present study is aimed to experimentally investigate the importance of the effects of thermal radiation and its corresponding view factor on the thermal performance of a straight-fin heat sink designed for electronic cooling under natural convection. The convection heat transfer coefficient between the fins and the ambient air is evaluated in conjunction with the results obtained through the experimental investigation. Three different models are developed to investigate the effects of thermal radiation and its pertinent view factor on the convection coefficient as well as the fin performance of the heat sink. The deviations based on different operating conditions for these models are analyzed and the importance of the effects of thermal radiation and view factor in the thermal analysis of fin arrays are identified and discussed. It can be concluded that the practice of neglecting the radiation view factor in the thermal analysis of fin arrays should be prohibited based on the fact that the errors generated are noticeably larger than those of solely neglecting thermal radiation. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.