ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-431-1
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-430-4
First Thermal and Fluids Engineering Summer Conference
A NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF THE HEAT SPREADER THICKNESS AND THE HEAT SINK SIZE ON THE THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF A COOLING DEVICE FOR A CPV MODULE
Abstract
In the present study, the effects of the heat spreader thickness and the heat sink size on the thermal performance of a cooling device for a CPV module were numerically investigated. Numerical simulation was conducted by using the commercial simulation tool. The thermal performance of a cooling device, which consists of a heat spreader and a natural convective heat sink, was evaluated with varying the heat spreader thickness and the heat sink size. The geometric configuration of the natural convective heat sink was optimized by using the existing correlation. The numerical results were compared with the existing experimental data in order to validate the present numerical model. The numerical results showed that the thermal resistance of the cooling device increases as the heat spreader thickness or the heat sink size increases. However, it was found that increasing the heat sink size does not always have an advantage to improve the thermal performance of the cooling device in terms of the temperature uniformity. Finally, the thermal performance of the cooling device was predicted under the fixed weight condition.