Thermal performance of an innovative heat sink using metallic foams and aluminum nanoparticles—Experimental study

This paper presents an experimental investigation of thermal performance for four types of heat sinks. The investigated heat sinks were: extruded uncoated longitudinal fin heat sink, extruded coated longitudinal fin heat sink by aluminum nanoparticles, rectangular block of commercially available aluminum metallic foam, and the innovative heat sink using water as a working fluid with the velocity of 1.17 m/s, aluminum nanocoated metallic foams, and uncoated metallic foams. Each heat sink was cooled by a confined stream of ambient air. The experiments were done in a wind tunnel where the free stream velocity ranged from 1 m/s to 3 m/s. Temperatures were measured at the base of heat sinks to represent the Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) chip temperature. The effects of air flow velocity on the thermal resistance of the heat sinks were also investigated. The thermal resistances of the four heat sinks were compared as well. The results showed that the innovative heat sink with aluminum nanoparticles had the best performance in comparison to the above mentioned heat sinks used for the study. Although the metallic foam heat sink had better performance than uncoated heat sinks, it cannot be an economic replacement for industrial applications due to its high price and dirt absorbing property.