1 Copyright 2012 by ASME

Proceedings of the ASME 2012 11th Biennial Conference On Engineering Systems Design And Analysis
ESDA 2012
July 2-4, 2012, Nantes, France


ESDA2012-82599
IMPLEMENTATIONS OF DEFLECTORS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF
HEAT SINKS

Ramirez-Vazquez J. P.

Universidad de Guanajuato
Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico
Hernandez-Guerrero A.

Universidad de Guanajuato
Salamanca, Guanajuato Mexico
e-mail: abel@ugto.mx

Zuiga-Cerroblanco J. L.
Universidad de Guanajuato
Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico
Rubio-Arana J. C.

Universidad de Guanajuato
Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico

ABSTRACT
This work presents a numerical study of the thermal and
hydrodynamic behavior of a pin-fin heat sink where deflectors
are placed along the flow of the coolant air; the effect of the
arrangement of the fins and deflectors in the global
performance of the heat sink is investigated. The fin geometry
analyzed is rectangular, and the arrangement of the fins is in-
line. The heat sink is placed in a channel in which air flows,
and a constant heat flux is applied at the bottom wall of the heat
sink with values equivalent to the heat fluxes generated by
current electronic devices. Deflectors are placed in the top of
the channel in order to drive the air flow into the front and end
of the heat sink. The results for the Nusselt number and for the
pressure drop along the heat sink are reported. The best
dimension of deflectors and pitch for the arrangement based on
the thermal and hydraulic performance is attained.
INTRODUCTION
Longitudinal fins of different geometry and shapes have
extensively being studied because of their use in numerous
cooling applications. The constant demand for speed and
performance in electronic devices is unfortunately accompanied
by an ever increasing thermal dissipation. Pin-fin heat sinks
with cross air flow are commonly used for enhancing the
cooling of electronic components in industry, primarily because
of low cost and high reliability. A pin-fin heat sink in electronic
devices is based on the thermal conduction of the electronic
group pasted to the base of the heat sink, and also on the

thermal conduction of the extended surfaces and the convection
to the flow.
On the other hand, fins are also used throughout the process
industries, in all vehicles for radiators and internal heat
exchangers, and in domestic applications such as radiators in
rooms, condensing central heating exchangers, air-conditioning
units and internal and external surfaces in refrigeration units.
Theoretical and experimental investigations have been
carried out to understand the heat transfer and the geometric
relation for pin-fin heat sinks; an improvement of this
arrangement implies energy savings, and by consequence a
smaller process equipments, greater efficiency and greater
control over the process. Attempts have been made to increase
the heat transfer by trying different congurations, roughness
on the plate surfaces, adding ns or even annexing deectors
which affect the direction of the ow [1]-[4]. The main
objective is to cause instability in the ow in order to reduce
the thickness of the thermal boundary layer and to increase the
convective coefficients.
BACKGROUND
Tuckerman and Pease [3] from Stanford University first
introduced the concept of a small heat dissipater for extremely
large heat rates in an article published in 1981. Since then,
other researchers have published experimental or theoretical
works and have generated a significant quantity of information
in the area of heat transfer dissipation.
2 Copyright 2012 by ASME
Zuniga-Cerroblanco et al. [4] carried out an experimental
and numerical investigation on pin-fin heat sink with different
cross sectional shapes. The optimal parameters for the
arrangement of pin-fins are found, as well as to select the best
geometry for the cross sectional area of the pin-fin. The
pressure drop and thermal resistance behavior are reported for
different Reynolds numbers.
Amon and Mikic [5] and Farhanieh et al. [6] have addressed
the problem of heat transfer in grooved channels, and the
results of these studies indicate that the redevelopment of the
thermal boundary layer along the top surface of each heated
block, inherent in electronic cooling applications, is
accompanied by high heat transfer coefficients. The slow
recirculating flow in the groove is heated by both upstream and
downstream blocks, and its interaction with the colder main
channel flow is impeded by the shear layer spanning the
groove.
Liu and Chen [7] experimentally studied turbulent heat
transfer and fluid flow in a rectangular channel with perforated
ribs. Consideration was given to both attached (to wall) and
detached ribs. Perforated ribs were made up of aluminum. Their
study indicated that the highest Nusselt number was around
three times larger than that for a corresponding channel without
ribs. Molki and Mostoufizadeh [8] developed an experimental
study to investigate heat transfer and pressure drop in a
rectangular duct with repeated-baffle blockages. The baffles
were arranged in a staggered fashion with fixed axial spacing.
An experimental investigation to study the enhancement of
the heat transfer from a heated flat plate with rectangular blocks
at different orientation angles was developed by Billen and
Yapici [9]. Their results indicated that the heat transfer could be
enhanced depending on the spacing between blocks, and the
block orientation angle. The maximum heat transfer rate was
obtained at the orientation angle of 45. Further experimental
investigations and numerical modeling by Amon and Mikic [5],
Farhanieh et al. [6] and Herman and Kang [10], [11], indicated
that the redevelopment of the thermal boundary layer along
each heated block, inherent in electronic cooling applications,
was accompanied by high heat transfer coefficients.
Adachi and Uehara [12] conducted the linear stability
analysis of flow in a channel with periodically grooved parts by
using the spectral element method. The channel was composed
of parallel plates with rectangular grooves on one side in a
streamwise direction. The flow field was assumed to be two-
dimensional, fully-developed, and for relatively small Reynolds
numbers.
Anderson and Moffat [13] used curved vanes (which they
called scoops) to improve the cooling of discrete electronic
components through increased thermal mixing in the coolant
flow. In order to reduce air temperatures near electronic
components, they installed small scoops at the bottom of the
groove, in the regions of high temperature and low velocity.
The scoops were oriented in such a way as to direct the flow
out of the groove with the aim to enhance mixing and reduce
temperature non-uniformity. They found that their approach
induces smaller pressure drop than conventional turbulence
enhancers for a given decrease of the operating temperature. Fu
and Tong [14] performed a numerical study on the influence of
heat transfer of an oscillating cylinder located at the entrance of
a horizontal channel with periodical heated blocks. In addition
they analyzed the effects of the Reynolds number, the
amplitude and the frequency of oscillation of the cylinder on
the heat transfer. The results demonstrated that the heat transfer
from the heated blocks increased surprisingly when the
frequency of oscillation of the cylinder was found in the region
near the top of the block. Furthermore it was demonstrated that
when the cylinder is oscillating, the heat transfer increases
120% compared to the case when there is no cylinder in the
horizontal channel.
Luviano-Ortiz et al. [15] analyzed the heat transfer and fluid
dynamics analysis of a horizontal channel formed by parallel
plates with periodic insertions of heated blocks, having curved
deflectors to direct the flow. The results show that the heat
transfer coefficient is larger as compared to that of the case
without deflectors. The increment in the heat transfer
coefficient is due primarily to the fluid motion stirred in the
area in between the heated blocks due to the deflectors.
However it must be pointed out that this implementation also
increases the pressure drop in the channel. The optimal
parameters for deflectors and their position are reported.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM
The heat sink is placed in a channel in which air flows
through, a constant heat flux is applied at the bottom wall of the
heat sink with values equivalent to the heat fluxes generated by
current electronic devices. Deflectors are placed in the top of
the channel for driving the air flow into the heat sink.
The duct is of rectangular cross section with 100 mm thick
walls and ceiling, and aluminum floor, where the sidewalls and
the floor are fixed and the ceiling is movable.
Figure 1 shows the lateral view of the geometry that was
analyzed. Figure 1 (a) shows an inlet velocity V
int
, a height of
the fins H, the heat flux applied to the bottom, the distance
between the tip of the fins and the ceiling of the channel is L
and the deflectors are placed between the fins. A view from the
top is shown in Figure 1 (b), showing an in-line arrangement,
the distance between fins is b, S
T
is the transversal pitch, S
L
is
the longitudinal pitch, and a is the fins side length. The channel
walls are fixed. The position of the deflectors is presented
schematically in Figure 1 (c). In this study the dimensions
represented by R
x
and R
y
were taken of the optimal parameters
found by Luviano-Ortiz et al. [15]; and R is the radius of the
deflector.
3 Copyright 2012 by ASME



Figure 1. Illustration of the heat sink geometry with a top
by-pass channel: (a) side view, (b) top view, (c) deflector
position.
The dimensions used in the analysis are presented in Table
1 (these are the optimal parameters found in the technical
literature [4], [15].)
Table 1. Dimensions of the pin-fin heat sink and position of
the deflectors.
Parameter[mm] 5x5 fins
arrangement
8x8 fins
arrangement
a 2.5 1.5
b 3.13 1.86
H 4.5 4.5
L 8 8
R 1.51 1.51
Ry 1.12 1.12
Rx 1.68 1.68
COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS
A model for the computational analysis was developed. It
consists of a heat sink fin arrangement, with a base in which a
heat flux is supplied; to avoid that the systems overheats a flow
of air is supplied and directed toward the fins of the heat sink.
For the model's numerical solution, the mass conservation
equation, Eq. (1), the momentum equation, Eq. (2), and the
energy conservation equation, Eq. (3), are solved.
u
x
+
v
y
+
w
z
= 0 (1)
u
u
x
+v
u
y
+w
u
y
=
P
x
+ (

u
x

u
y

u
z

)
u
v
x
+v
v
y
+w
v
y
=
P
y
+ (

v
z

)
u
w
x
+v
w
y
+w
w
y
=
P
z
+ (

w
z

)

(2)
(u
T
x
) +(v
T
y
) +(w
T
z
) = (

T
x

T
y

T
z

) (3)
The average Nusselt number was determined as:
Nu

=
2h

s
k

(4)
where h

is obtained by means of
h

=
1
A
hdA

(5)
The friction coefficient was determined as
=
P
1
2
u

(6)
Once the governing equations are completely well-defined,
then conditions that most resemble the physics of the
phenomenon at the entrance, exit and limits of the confinement
have to be considered, and are as follows:
The air temperature at the entrance of the channel is
the ambient temperature (300 K).
A constant heat flux is applied to the base of the heat
sink.
Steady state.
Incompressible flow.
Turbulent flow.
Turbulence model k- (RNG).
Heat transfer by radiation is negligible.
Constant properties.
The k- (RNG) model is used based on renormalization of
the group theory. The boundary conditions listed above are
sketched in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Boundary conditions for the computational
analysis.
4 Copyright 2012 by ASME
CONVERGENCE CRITERION
To assure that the solution is mesh-independent, many runs
were carried out until the residuals for the governing equations
were less than 10
-3
(with the exception of the energy equation,
for which an harsher criterion of 10
-6
was chosen), and also by
doubling the mesh until no difference was perceived between
the previous solution and the solution found by doubling the
mesh. The number of iterations required for the analysis using
no deflectors was:
Fin Arrangement Flow Velocity
(m/s)
Iterations
5 x 5 2 199
5 x 5 4 232
8 x 8 2 164
8 x 8 4 212
Whereas for the case using deflectors:
Fin Arrangement Flow Velocity
(m/s)
Iterations
5 x 5 2 232
5 x 5 4 232
8 x 8 2 199
8 x 8 4 199
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The pressure distributions along the heat sink channel are
taken directly from the results of the computational analysis
and presented en the following graphs.
Figures 3 and 4 show the pressure distribution along the
channel, with inlet velocities of 2 m/s and 4 m/s with a fin
arrangement of 5 x 5 and 8 x 8 respectively. As expected, it is
observed that the pressure is high at the entrance of the heat
sink channel and diminishes downstream, having a larger
pressure drop for the 4 m/s flow.

Figure 3. Pressure distribution along the heat sink channel
with inlet velocities of 2 m/s and 4 m/s without deflectors, for a
5 x 5 fins arrangement.

Figure 4. Pressure distribution along the heat sink channel
with inlet velocities of 2 m/s and 4 m/s without deflectors, for a
8 x 8 fins arrangement.
The effect of the deflectors on the hydrodynamic behavior
is shown in Figure 5. When the deflectors are used the pressure
drop through the pin-fin heat sink arrangement increases 20 %,
directly increasing the energy required to cool the heat sink.

Figure 5. Effect of the deflectors on the pressure
distribution along the heat sink channel with an inlet velocity of
4 m/s, for a 5 x 5 fins arrangement.
The local Nusselt number for 4 m/s and an 8 x 8 fins
arrangement is shown in Figure 6, with the value of the Nusselt
number increasing along the heat sink; this is mainly caused by
the acceleration of the fluid that is leaving the pin-fin and
deflector section and also by the instability that is generated
when the air is passing through this section.
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Distance in the channel (mm)
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

(
P
a
)


4 m/s
2 m/s
Pin-fin heat sink
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Distance in the channel (mm)
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

(
P
a
)


4 m/s
2 m/s
Pin-fin heat sink
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Distance in the channel (mm)
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

d
r
o
p

(
P
a
)


Without deflectors
With deflectors
Pin-fin heat sink
5 Copyright 2012 by ASME

Figure 6. Local Nusselt number with an inlet velocity of 4
m/s, for an 8 x 8 fins arrangement.

Figure 7. Local Nusselt number with an inlet velocity of 2 m/s,
for a 5 x 5 fins arrangement.

Figure 8. Local Nusselt number with an inlet velocity of 4 m/s,
for a 5 x 5 fins arrangement.

Figure 9. Local Nusselt number with an inlet velocity of 2 m/s,
for an 8 x 8 fins arrangement.
Figures 7-9 show comparisons of the local Nusselt number
with deflectors and without deflectors. Thus, by using
deflectors there is clearly an increase of the local Nusselt
number; this is due to the acceleration of the fluid caused by the
deflector, and to the fact that the flow is being directed towards
areas that otherwise will have stagnation of the airflow; the
largest local Nusselt number appears at the end of the pin-fin
heat sink. At the entrance of the pin-fin arrangement the
Nusselt number is the same for both cases, and it has a higher
increment through the heat sink when the deflectors are used.
It is clear that the Nusselt number improves with the
presence of deflectors for both pin-fin heat sinks arrangements;
the Nu number is larger when there is a 5X5 arrangement and
the flow velocity is the largest.
CONCLUSIONS
This analysis confirms that an influence of the deflectors on
the pressure drop behavior and on the Nusselt number exists.
Of course, as expected, the pressure drop increases with the
addition of deflectors, but also the capacity of heat dissipation
(i.e. the Nusselt number increases significantly), which is the
focus of the idea of using deflectors. This idea of
implementing deflectors, therefore, should be pursued some
more to aid the pin-fin heat sinks to be able to dissipate the
almost incredible amounts of heat that is generated by the most
current electronic devices. It is expected that this amounts of
energy to dissipate will double and even triple in the very short
future. The optimal working conditions of the various normally
used current devices (laptops, computer-based devices, etc.)
depend on it.
It is concluded that the deflectors improve significantly the
performance of the pin-fin heat sinks, having the capacity to
dissipate larger amounts of thermal energy, and thus, optimal
work conditions for electronic devices can be maintained. The
deflectors clearly help to avoid stagnation regions that will
lower the heat dissipation.
0 5 10 15 20 25
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Distance in the heat sink (mm)
N
u
s
s
e
l
t

n
u
m
b
e
r


With deflectors
0 5 10 15 20 25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Distance in the heat sink (mm)
N
u
s
s
e
l
t

n
u
m
b
e
r


With deflectors
Without deflectors
0 5 10 15 20 25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Distance in the heat sink (mm)
N
u
s
s
e
l
t

n
u
m
b
e
r


With deflectors
Without deflectors
0 5 10 15 20 25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Distance in the heat sink (mm)
N
u
s
s
e
l
t

n
u
m
b
e
r


With deflectors
Without deflectors
6 Copyright 2012 by ASME
It is also concluded, more specifically, that the channel
geometry, position of the deflectors (both along the length of
the channel, as well as the distance above the heat sinks), the
resident time of the flow particles, the flow regimen, etc., for a
given heat flux, will affect the dissipation. Therefore a
continuation of this study is needed to optimize the flow and
geometric parameters; perhaps a Second Law based analysis
(say such as the minimum entropy generation analysis) will
provide the optimum operating conditions.
NOMENCLATURE
a n side, [m]
b distance between two ns in the flow direction, [m]
c
p
specific heat, [J/kg K]
d
f
n hydraulic diameter, [m]
H n height, [m]
h heat transfer coefficient, [W/m
2
K]
L height of the top by-pass section (top clearance), [m]
n number of rows or columns
N
u
Nusselt number
q
conv
rate of heat transfer convected through heat sink, [W]
q
loss
total amount of heat loss, [W]
q
tot
total power applied to heat sink, [W]
R radius of the deflector [m]
R
x
position of the deflector in the X-coordinate [m]
R
y
position of the deflector in the Y-coordinate [m]
Re Reynolds number
S
L
longitudinal, pitch [m]
u velocity in the finned section, [m/s]
V
in
entrance velocity, [m/s]
Greek symbols
P pressure drop in the nned section, [Pa]
density [kg/m
3
]
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