Simulation on the effect of filling porous medium on the performance of thermally conductive plastic heat sinks

Abstract

High thermally conductive plastics have the characteristics of corrosion resistance, easy processing, and high thermal conductivity and can be used in corrosive environments or complex-shaped heat sinks. However, its thermal conductivity is still significantly lower than that of traditional metal heat sinks. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the heat dissipation performance design. Based on the N–S equation and the k-ε turbulence model, the effect of porous media filled in the thermally conductive plastic heat sinks on its heat dissipation performance is studied. We compared this optimizing method with adding vortex generators in the literature. The maximum temperature of the heat sink bottom decreases by 9.3 °C. The pressure drop reduces by 55 %, and the Nusselt number increases by 9.3 %. The optimized heat sink has a hydrothermal performance factor (HTPF) 1.41. The heat dissipation performance can be similar to that of an aluminum heat sink. This study provides optimization ideas for expanding the application of thermally conductive plastics in heat sinks.

Keywords

• Thermally conductive plastics
• Heat sink
• Porous media
• Numerical simulation