Performance enhancement of heat sink with branched and interrupted fins

Efficient cooling of the electronic device is of paramount importance for its safe and reliable operation. Therefore, the present study makes a performance analysis of branched and interrupted fins to explore the possibility of heat transfer enhancement, while keeping the overall heat sink volume fixed, using numerical simulations. Six different heat sink configurations have been considered, i.e., continuous fin, interrupted fins, fins with one side branch, branched fin symmetrically placed at the tip of primary fin, fins with tertiary branch, interrupted and branched fin symmetrically placed at the tip of primary fin. The temperature difference between the fin base and the ambient (ΔT) has been varied in the range of 10 °C to 60 °C (1.1 × 105 ≤ Ra ≤ 6.1 × 105). The results have been analyzed in terms of heat transfer rate (Q), specific heat transfer rate (Q/m), effectiveness, and Nusselt number (Nu). With the branching of fins, not all designs of heat sinks yield better performance. The design in which the secondary fins are placed symmetrically and at the farthest position from the base plate, dissipates maximum heat with a weight reduction of 12.26% compared to the continuous fin.