Development of a plate-pin fin heat sink and its performance comparisons with a plate fin heat sink

Based on plate fin heat sinks (PFHSs), a new type of plate-pin fin heat sink (PPFHS) is constructed, which is composed of a PFHS and some columnar pins staggered between plate fins. Numerical simulations and some experiments were performed to compare thermal performances of these two types of heat sinks. The simulation results showed that thermal resistance of a PPFHS was about 30% lower than that of a PFHS used to construct the PPFHS under the condition of equal wind velocity. Another obvious advantage of PPFHSs is that users can change an existing unsuitable PFHS into a required PPFHS by themselves to achieve better air-cooling results.