Topology optimized novel additively manufactured heat sink: Experiments and numerical simulations

Topology optimization is an effective method for designing high-performance heat sinks with reduced weight and size. The integration of topology optimization with additive manufacturing technology can effectively leverage the benefits of topology optimization to enhance the design process. In this study, nine types of heat sinks are designed by density-based topology optimization and fabricated via the laser powder bed fusion technology. Three different optimization goals including the minimization of temperature variance, thermal compliance and the temperature difference between the heat source surface and side surfaces are considered in design configurations. We develop a high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics model to investigate the velocity and temperature distributions of the cooling fluid around various fins, and conduct the corresponding experiments to test the thermal performance of the developed heat sinks. The results show that topology optimized fins can significantly enhance heat transfer capability of the heat sink. As the cooling fluid velocity increases from 0.3 m/s to 1.9 m/s, topology optimized heat sinks exhibit superior thermal performance with the highest heat transfer coefficient of 305 W·m−2·K−1 and the highest Nusselt number of 202. This research proves the powerful capability of laser powder bed fusion technology on manufacturing novel peculiar fins and provides a theoretical and experimental guidance for novel compact heat sink in the future designs.