Numerical Study of Thermal and Flow Characteristics of Plate-Fin Heat Sink with Longitudinal Vortex Generator Installed on the Ground

• Main Authors: Yen-Tso Chang, Han-Ching Lin, Chi-Jui Huang, Go-Long Tsai, Jinn-Feng Jiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2014-01-01
• Series: Mathematical Problems in Engineering
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/245759
• ISSN: 1024-123X; 1563-5147

This study applied the commercial software ANSYS CFD (FLUENT), for simulating the transient flow field and investigating the influence of each parameter of longitudinal vortex generators (LVGs) on the thermal flux of a plate-fin heat sink. Vortex generator was set in front of plate-fin heat sink and under the channel, which was in common-flow-down (CFD) and common-flow-up (CFU) conditions, which have the result of vortex generator of delta winglet pair (DWP). In this study the parameters were varied, such as the minimum transverse distance between winglet pair, the attack angle of the vortex generator, fins number, the fin height, and the distance between the vortex generator and plate-fin. The coolant fluid flew into the fin-to-fin channel and pushed the vortex from different geometry toward the bottom. This phenomenon took off the heat from the plate to enhance the heat transfer. The numerical results indicated that the LVGs located close to the plate-fin heat sink are zero with the attack angle being 30°, presenting optimal overall conditions.