Fluid flow and heat transfer of porous TPMS architected heat sinks in free convection environment

• Main Authors: Abu Al-Rub, R.K (Author), Ali, M.I (Author), Baobaid, N. (Author), Khan, K.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2022
• Subjects: Air; Boundary conditions; Cellular automata; Cellular structure; Cellular structures; Computational fluid dynamics; Electronic cooling; Enclosures; Exchange mechanism; Flow of fluids; Fluid flow and heat transfers; Free convection; Heat sinks; High surface area; Natural convection; Sink-in; Space constraints; Surface-based; Thermal exchange; Thermal Performance; Thermoelectric equipment; Triply periodic minimal surfaces
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Heat dissipation in electronic devices is challenging due its limited size and cooling space constraint. Implementing Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS)-based cellular structures could enhance the thermal exchange mechanism due to their novel architected, interconnected, and inter wind porous topologies and high surface area to volume ratio. In this study, three novel mathematically-driven TPMS heatsink structures were investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based models. TPMS heat sinks consisting of seven triply periodic unit cells were examined to investigate their thermal performance and fluid flow behavior in free convection air environment. The thermal performance indicators as convection heat transfer coefficient and surface temperature under parametric variation of applied heat load, fluid enclosure boundary condition, and TPMS structure orientation were determined. Enclosure boundary conditions found to have a significant effect on the thermal behavior of each heat sink structure; including radiation contribution was found to account for approximately 23% of the overall heat transfer in due to the complex TPMS internal structure. Three empirical Nusslet number correlations were then derived for the investigated TPMS structures. The results showed that TPMS-based heat sinks outperform conventional heat sinks by 48–61% owing to the random perturbations of flow and high packing density. This work shows the potential of TPMS porous architectures as very promising heat sinks. © 2022 The Author(s)