IJSART - Volume X Issue Y –MONTH 20XX ISSN [ONLINE]: 2395-1052

Design & Analysis of Processor Cooling

Fins
Madhu B P, Kamal prashanth T, Kevin Jeffrey A, Suraj N, Vashantha kumar J
School of Mechanical engineering, REVA University.

Abstract—In this study, thermal analysis of electronic processor (Cu or Al) with many fins. In this paper, section 2 describes
fins is proposed and an effort is made to understand temperature the heat sink types and its thermal resistance. Section 3
distribution in processor by employing rectangular fins which aid
explains the least square model for estimating the parameters
in rapid heat removal to the surroundings for ensuring the optimal
and predicting the best fit of the proposed heat sink in
working of the processor. Removal of heat generated in the
processor gets augmented by the application of fins to it.. Modeling different loads of a microprocessor. In electronic systems, a
is done in CATIA V5 and Analysis is carried out using Multi-physics heat sink is a passive heat exchanger that cools a device by
software, COMSOL. Heat flows out from the processor to the dissipating heat into the surrounding medium. In computers,
surrounding through the casing and then to fins attached to it. heat sinks are used to cool central processing units or graphics
Convective boundary condition is applied to one face of a fin.. The processors. Heat sinks are used with high-power
results report the temperature distribution and heat transfer rate semiconductor devices such as power transistors and
contour for variation in fin length. Results show that COMSOL can optoelectronics such as lasers and light emitting diodes
be used effectively and efficiently to solve the challenge of heat
(LEDs), where the heat dissipation ability of the basic device
transfer problem.
is insufficient to moderate its temperature. A heat sink is
designed to maximize its surface area in contact with the
Keywords :, CATIA V5, COMSOL ,Metal fin, Thermal analysis.
cooling medium surrounding it, such as the air. Air velocity,
choice of material, protrusion design and surface treatment
I. INTRODUCTION
are factors that affect the performance of a heat sink. Heat
We need to go far back in time to remember a CPU that sink attachment methods and thermal interface materials also
was able to operate completely without a heat sink. The first affect the die temperature of the integrated circuit. Thermal
Intel processors were already producing considerable amount adhesive or thermal grease improve the heat sink's
of heat, but the low specifications allowed operation without performance by filling air gaps between the heat sink and the
any heat removal mechanism. A little later, as the processing heat spreader on the device.
speed increased, these processors required at least a passive
heat sink for trouble free operation. However, for the last few A. Heat transfer principal
years, as the processors got more and more powerful, it has A heat sink transfers thermal energy from a higher
become mandatory that a CPU requires a multi-fin heat sink temperature device to a lower temperature fluid medium. The
as well as a fan that ensures reasonable air flow through the fluid medium is frequently air, but can also be water,
cooling fins as the overheated processors exhibit a shorter refrigerants or oil. If the fluid medium is water, the heat sink
maximum life span and often results in problems like system is frequently called a cold plate. In thermodynamics a heat
freezes or crashes. A heat sink is a device used in computers sink is a heat reservoir that can absorb an arbitrary amount of
to remove the large amount of heat generated by components, heat without significantly changing temperature. Practical
including ICs such as CPUs, chipsets and graphic cards, heat sinks for electronic devices must have a temperature
during their operation. A heat sink is used to increase the higher than the surroundings to transfer heat by convection,
surface area which dissipates the heat faster n keeps the ICs radiation, and conduction. The power supplies of electronics
under safe operating temperature. Fans are also used to speed are not 100% efficient, so extra heat is produced that may be
up this process. It usually consists of a base with one or more detrimental to the function of the device. As such, a heat sink
flat surfaces and an array of fin like protrusions to increase is included in the design to disperse heat to improve efficient
the heat sink’s surface area contacting the air, and thus energy use. Fig. 1 shows how the heat sink looks. With the
increasing the heat dissipating rate. A combination of a heat same image principle of heat transfer can be understood
sink and a fan is widely used which maintains a larger easily.
temperature gradient by replacing warmed air more quickly. To understand the principle of a heat sink, consider
Heat sinks are made from good thermal conductors such as Fourier's law of heat conduction. Fourier's law of heat
copper or aluminum alloy. Copper is significantly heavier and conduction, simplified to a one-dimensional form in the x-
more expensive than aluminum but it is also roughly twice as direction, shows that when there is a temperature gradient in
efficient. The most common of a heat sink is a metal device a body, heat will be transferred from the higher temperature
region to the lower temperature region.

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 studies of compact heat sinks with fin thickness and pitch as
small as 0.34mm and 0.70mm. Results correlated well with
results from compact heat exchanger data. This compactness
factor, defined as thermal conductance per unit volume, was
three to seven times that of standard heat sinks. M Bisht and
K S Mehra (2014) condecucted number of experiments and
published a paper on optimisation of working of processor by
fins using FEM in International Journal for Research in
Applied Science and Engineering Technology.

III. PROBLEM SPECIFICATION

The heat sink of processor is made up of Aluminium of
Fig. 1 heat transfer principal thermal conductivity of 167W/m-K. Processor generates heat
The rate at which heat is transferred by conduction, , is of 54 W. There is convection along all the boundaries except
proportional to the product of the temperature gradient and the bottom, which is insulated. The film (convection)
the cross-sectional area through which heat is transferred. coefficient is h=20 W/m2-K and the ambient temperature is
25ºC. An attempt is done to understand the heat transfer rate
in processor. The properties of Aluminium material are:

Consider a heat sink in a duct, where air flows through the  Thermal conductivity : 167 W/m-K
duct, as shown in Figure It is assumed that the heat sink base  Melting point : 660 °C
is higher in temperature than the air. Applying the  Specific heat : 0.9 J /g -°C
conservation of energy, for steady-state conditions, and  Thermal diffusivity : 9.5e-7 m^2/s
Newton’s law of cooling to the temperature nodes gives the  Thermal expansion : 23/°C
following set of equations.
IV. PROCESS METHODOLOGY
The process of solving this in FEM by using COMSOL is
as below
B. Design factors to be considered A. Solid modeling
While designing fins factors to be considered are thermal Solid modeling is done in CATIA V5 and converted into
resistance, fin efficiency, spreading resistance, optimization, .stp file format so that we can import this model easily in
fin arrangement and surface color. COMSOL 15. Solid modeling is as shown in the below figure
that is Fig. 2.
II. LITERATURE
Knight et al. (1992) extended previous analysis of micro
channel heat sinks for turbulent as well as laminar flow. They
demonstrated improvement of previous studies by relaxing
constraints on fin thickness/ pitch ratio and allowing turbulent
flow. Copeland (1995) modified previous analyses for
developing flow and calculated optimum fin thickness and
pitch for silicon heat sinks cooled by fluorocarbon liquids.
Lee (1995) analysed flow through parallel fin heat sinks in
fully ducted and partially ducted flows. Unlike a fully ducted
configuration, in partially ducted configuration at a fixed
approach velocity, an optimum size of fin existed; thermal
performance improves monotonically as fin pitch is Fig.2 Solid model
decreased. Aranyosi et al. (1997) showed isocurves of B. Static thermal analysis of metal fins.
pressure drop and fan power at fixed thermal resistance in The temperature distribution of metal fin is obtained from
addition to isocurves of thermal resistance at fixed pressure static thermal analysis from the following steps:
drop and fan power. As pressure drop or fan/blower power
1) Designer module: The model of metal fin is imported
increased, optimum fan thickness and pitch decreased,
into COMSOL designer module as step file (.stp),
resulting in reduced thermal resistance. In addition to
where the cleaning and the stitching of the model
analysis, experimental and numerical studies were
surfaces is done.
performed. Tasaka et al. (1997) performed experimental

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 2) Meshing module : The finite element mesh is used to V. RESULTS
subdivide the CAD model into smaller domains called Temperature and heat transfer rate contours are plotted for
elements, over which a set of equations are solved. Fig the whole fin. Results are summarized in the form of graph
4.14 shows the meshed model of Fin. for Maximum Temperature and Heat transfer rate for
different cases of fins.. Results are summarized in the form of
graph for Temperature and Heat transfer rate for whole fin.

Fig.3 Meshed model

3) Applying the boundary conditions : Boundary
condition is the one that is required to be satisfied at
all or part of the boundary of a region in which a set
of differential conditions is to be solved. Fig. 6 Variation of temperature and heat transfer
rate with respect to fin length.
 Ambient temperature : 25°C
VI. CONCLUSION
 Boundary heat source : 1W
Thermal analysis of processor is done for ensuring its
 Heat transfer coefficient : 50 W/m^2-k
optimal working. Rectangular fins of aluminum are attached
to the steel casing enclosing the processor. The results have
C. Solution
been obtained by increasing the number of fins. The
It includes temperature distribution and heat transfer rate temperature distribution and heat flux contours with different
contours ; here we specify the constraints and finally solve selection in number of processor fins are obtained. It is
the resulting set of equations. In this problem one side of observed that the heat transfer rate is decreasing and
block have convection type of boundary condition except the temperature is increasing. But after 30mm fin length there is
bottom side which is insulated and analysis type is Steady no considerable increase in temperature.
state thermal analysis.
VII. FUTURE SCOPE
 Thermal analysis for processor cooling system with
different shapes of fins and optimization of the same.
 Cost reduction analysis with variable parameters.
 CFD analysis of the fins, to understand air flow around the
fins.

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