ME 436

Fin Heat Transfer Project

Andres Paredes Morejon

Luke Stephenson Nicholas Miller
4/26/2013

April 26, 2013

[FIN HEAT TRANSFER PROJECT]

Table of Contents

Nomenclature .................................................................................................................................. 2 Design and Process Overview ........................................................................................................ 3 Design Schematic............................................................................................................................ 4 Design Problem Analysis ................................................................................................................ 6 Design Process ................................................................................................................................ 8 References ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 10

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Nomenclature
A d h k L Q T a W Subscripts c b f s conv cross section base of the fin fin Surface convection area [m^2] diameter [m] heat transfer coefficient [W/m^2-K] thermal conductivity [W/m-K] length [m] rate of heat transfer [W] temperature [K] density [kg/m^3] aspect ratio efficiency effectiveness temperature change weight

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Design and Process Overview

The goal of this project was to design a fin to facilitate heat transfer from a computer chip. The fin was to be designed using one of the three different materials: copper, silver, and aluminum. The process used to design the optimum fin for each material was to create a spread sheet using Microsoft Excel. In excel the approach was to solve all the necessary calculations by creating and referencing cells. Three cells in particular however were the key to optimizing the fin geometry. When doing the cell referencing the length, width, and height cells were left variable. The sum of the convection and conduction was found through energy balance equations. Then by using Excels Solver function it was possible to put constraints on the length, width, and height of the fins and solve for the optimum dimensions and minimum cost using an iterative process. After finding the dimensions for the three different materials it became apparent that aluminum was the most feasible option. Aluminum had by far the lowest total cost per fin, as well as being the most efficient fin. Aluminum did however use the most material and was the second heaviest fin. Silver ended up being the lightest of the three fins, while copper ended up being the heaviest. Silver, while being the lightest was still wildly impractical as it was by far the most expensive of the three metals. Copper was both more expensive as well as heavier than aluminum making it the least desirable material of the three. Table 1 Aluminum Data
Qf Qconv,chip Qtotal Volume Weight material cost manufacturing cost Total Cost 0.968522742 2.368033532 0.206433713 3.000 6.028E-06 0.02 $0.03 $0.11 $0.14

Table 2 Copper Data

Qf Qconv,chip Qtotal Volume Weight material cost manufacturing cost Total Cost 0.958186833 2.270807243 0.303661123 3.000 3.184E-06 0.03 $0.20 $0.27 $0.47

Table 3 Silver Data

Qf Qconv,chip Qtotal Volume Weight material cost manufacturing cost Total Cost 0.759133042 2.211986248 0.362479821 3.000 9.891E-07 0.01 $8.23 $2.04 $10.26

Ruling out both copper and silver for fin materials aluminum is also an option that is very easy to manufacture. For this fin design extrusion would probably be the most cost effective way to fabricate the fins on a large scale. Even cold extrusion could be a possibility. However, if for any reason precision was needed this would be an easy part for a quick machining pass. The final design of the fin satisfies the need of the system; however, this does not account in any safety factors. As well this does not take into account that the fin isnt 100% efficient. This fact is the greatest uncertainty of the fin. Without including a factor of safety to account for efficiency loss the fin is incredibly non-conservative. In this project the heat sink was created using only a single fin. For a more effective cooling system a multiple pin system would be ideal. It would be possible to dissipate more heat using a multiple pin system, as well as creating a lighter more compact system. The main drawback of a multiple pin system is the increased cost of manufacturing. Multiple small pins are much harder to create and attach than a single large pin. Beyond

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multiple pins, rerunning the optimization in excel to reach maximum cooling where cost is not an issue would reveal different shapes and designs for the different materials.

Design Schematic

Figure 1 - Aluminum Fin with Silicon Chip

Figure 2 - Copper Fin with Silicon Chip

Figure 3 - Silver Fin with Silicon Chip

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Below is the visual representation of the energy balance or heat transfer that is occuring. It is assumed that the heat rate produced from the chip is a constant 3W. This basic layout of heat transfer is utilized for the equation arrangment.

Convection

Convection

Fin Convection Convection

Conduction

Silicon Chip Epoxy Board

Conduction

Figure 4 Heat transfer Diagram Convection

Convection

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Design Problem Analysis

In order to design a heat sink that maintains a chip temperature at a maximum of 65C the various forms of heat transfer were found. The length, width and height of the fin were the variables that are being adjusted in order to determine the best fin design. In order to manipulate the previous variable the following perimeter and cross sectional area equations were used for the remainder of the equations.

The conduction and convection heat transfer coefficients, k and h respectively, were determined from Table A.1 in the mass and heat transfer book. With these two coefficients as well as the perimeter and area equations the following were used.

Where the theta value is the temperature difference of,

From Table 3.4 in the book with the assumption of a non-adiabatic tip, the fin therefore has convection heat transfer and determines that the fins convection heat transfer rate from equation 3.77 is applicable. ( ( ) )

The convection rate from the chip was also taken into account for this two portions were calculated, the top area and the area of the sides to complete the total surface.

Next the heat transfer rate to and from the Epoxy board was found using a series of resistances. The first resistance was the contact resistance between the silicon chip and the epoxy board, this was a given value in

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the problem statement, and it was then divided by our assumed board area. The resistance of the epoxy itself and the air resistance were calculated as such.

Having the resistances that make up the epoxy heat transfer the rate of heat transfer is found.

Setting all the heat transfer rates equal to the total Qin of the system which is given to be 3W at the given max temperature constant produces the following and allows the calculations to be solved for to reach acceptable heat transfer rates.

With these equations known the length and width are able to be solved thus allowing the material and manufacturing costs to be obtained after looking online for the most recent costs of the various metals.

Additionally, for a comparison the weight is calculated from the density and volume of materials used.

These resulted in a total summed cost, which was minimized in an excel document to create acceptable heat transfer with the least amount of material and incurring the smallest manufacturing costs. Finally the efficiency was calculated for the three different metals at each of their optimal designs using their corrected lengths. ( )

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Design Process
To start calculations the following assumptions were made in order to justify many of the equations used to solve for this optimization problem. These assumptions consisted of: One dimensional flow Steady State Constant Properties Constant Heat flux Radiation is negligible

Due to the fact that flow rates of air were not given we assumed the maximum rate possible for the best convection and therefore calculated radiation values were small enough to be neglected. The process used for optimization of the fin design implemented the processing power of Microsoft Excel. The attached data spread sheet was fabricated to include all the relevant material properties, dimensions, known parameters, and any other relevant information. The goal of using Excel was to minimize the time and effort needed to obtain the optimum fin dimensions for each material. Because all the known parameters and all the material properties are explicitly stated in the table, all the calculations can be done by referencing Excel cells. In order to find the optimal length, width, and height of the fin variable cells were made. All calculations involving any of these dimensional variables referenced these cells so that by simply changing a dimensional value all other calculations would be updated automatically. After referencing all the necessary calculations a total cost for the fin could be calculated. This is when the processing power of Excel was used.

Figure 5 Excel Solver Function Screenshot

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By using the Solver function of excel the Total Cost cell, which includes both material and manufacturing costs, could be explicitly referenced and minimized by selecting variable cells. These variable cells were the dimensional cells. The Solver function allowed the team to assign specific constraints to the dimensional variables and then Excel could iterate the optimal solution. These constraints consisted of: Thickness<Width 0.0005m <Thickness .015m, 0m <Width .015m 0m < Length (height) Qtotal3W

All of these values can be seen in the attached spreadsheet.

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References
[1] Incropera, F. P. and DeWitt, D. P., Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer, Fifth edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2002. [2] Laboratory 1: Linear Heat Conduction Manual [3] Laboratory 2: Heat transfer from extended surfaces Manual [4] Laboratory 3: Transient heat transfer Manual [5] Laboratory 4: External forced convection Manual

Appendix
Table 4
Material Properties density AL K AL Cost density Cu K Cu Cost density Silver K Silver Cost 2700 237 1.87 8933 401 7.163 10500 429 792 kg/m^3 W/mK $/Kg kg/m^3 W/mK $/Kg kg/m^3 W/mK $/Kg

Table 5
Known Parameters h K epoxy R surface 30 5 0.00065 W/m2*K W/m*K m2*K/W

Thick,chip Width,chip Length,chip Thick,epoxy Width,epoxy Length,epoxy b Ts Tinf delta T R contact R air R epoxy Qepoxy

0.015 0.015 0.0015 0.015 0.015 0.0025 40 65 25 40 2.89 88.89 2.22 0.426

m m m m m m C C C C K/W K/W K/W W

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Aluminum Thickness,fin 0.0120 Copper Thickness,fin 0.0041 Silver Thickness,fin 0.0009

Length,fin Width,fin A_f,fin 0.0422 0.011957086 0.001151245

A_c,fin 0.000142972

P 0.047828344

h 30

K 237

m M a 6.507344114 8.819882872 3.52612401

Length,fin 0.0514

Width,fin 0.0150

A_f,fin 0.001603861

A_c,fin 6.19491E-05

P 0.038259875

h 30

K 401

m M a 6.797400196 6.754325035 12.44499955

Length,fin 0.0765

Width,fin 0.0150

A_f,fin 0.002307113

A_c,fin 1.29335E-05

P 0.031724464

h 30

K 429

m M a 13.09698696 2.906726353 88.69148805

Aluminum Qf Qconv,chip Qtotal Volume Weight material cost manufacturing cost Total Cost 13.80244085 0.968522742 2.368033532 0.206433713 3.000 6.028E-06 0.02 $0.03 $0.11 $0.14 Copper Qf Qconv,chip Qtotal Volume Weight material cost manufacturing cost Total Cost 30.54669807 0.958186833 2.270807243 0.303661123 3.000 3.184E-06 0.03 $0.20 $0.27 $0.47 Silver Qf Qconv,chip Qtotal Volume Weight material cost manufacturing cost Total Cost 142.5232468 0.759133042 2.211986248 0.362479821 3.000 9.891E-07 0.01 $8.23 $2.04 $10.26

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