Experimental investigation of high performance thermal module with dimple vortex generators

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of different dimple vortex generators arrangement are examined in this study. A total of five heat sinks were made and tested, including plain fin, dimple, two-group dimple, oblique dimple gap 4-12 fin, oblique dimple gap 6-12 fin. The tested results indicate that the pressure drop for dimple fin geometry is significantly higher than other fin types, followed by the two group dimple fin. The fin structure with oblique dimple shows slightly increase of pressure drop as compared to the plain fin surface. The results show that more complicated fin structure will lead to higher pressure drop. The observed IR image of the temperature measurement of the test fin configurations also proves the measurements. The results suggest that the fin with dimple vortex generators is more beneficial than that of plain fin geometry. The oblique dimple fin is especially useful for air-cooling applicable for electronic devices to achieve effective augmentations without suffering from significant pressure penalty.