Abstract: Thermal performances of plate-fin, pin-fin and elliptical heat sinks with vertical base plate were compared in natural convection. Comparison is performed with same base plate dimensions and height of fin condition. In the work herein, steady-state natural convection heat transfer and thermal performance comparison between rectangular finned heat sinks and pin fin heat sink from vertically-oriented base plate is investigated. After generating and validating the existing analytical results for continuous fins, a systematic numerical study is conducted on the effect of the elliptical fin. ANSYS and SOLIDWORKS software are used in order to develop a three-dimensional numerical model for investigation of different fin geometries effects. Results show that alterations in fin geometry to vertical oriented base plate fins enhances the thermal performance of fins and reduces the weight of the fin arrays, which leads to lower manufacturing costs. The optimum spacing for maximum fin array thermal performance is found. This study suggests that the most important geometric parameter influencing the heat transfer from pin fin arrays is the ratio of the fin diameter to the center to center spacing.

Keywords: Fins, natural convection, numerical model, optimization.