Thermal and Mechanical Modeling of Metal Foams for Thermal Interface Application

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ninad Trifale ◽  
Eric Nauman ◽  
Kazuaki Yazawa
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Resistance ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Electronics Cooling ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Pore Density ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Interface Thermal Resistance ◽  
Thermally Conductive

We present a study on the apparent thermal resistance of metal foams as a thermal interface in electronics cooling applications. Metal foams are considered beneficial for several applications due to its significantly large surface area for a given volume. Porous heat sinks made of aluminum foam have been well studied in the past. It is not only cost effective due to the unique production process but also appealing for the theoretical modeling study to determine the performance. Instead of allowing the refrigerant flow through the open cell porous medium, we instead consider the foam as a thermal conductive network for thermal interfaces. The porous structure of metal foams is moderately compliant providing a good contact and a lower thermal resistance. We consider foam filled with stagnant air. The major heat transport is through the metal struts connecting the two interfaces with high thermally conductive paths. We study the effect of both porosity and pore density on the observed thermal resistance. Lower porosity and lower pore density yield smaller bulk thermal resistance but also make the metal foam stiffer. To understand this tradeoff and find the optimum, we developed analytic models to predict intrinsic thermal resistance as well as the contact thermal resistance based on microdeformation at the contact surfaces. The variants of these geometries are also analyzed to achieve an optimum design corresponding to maximum compliance. Experiments are carried out in accordance with ASTM D5470 standard. A thermal resistance between the range 17 and 5 K cm2/W is observed for a 0.125 in. thick foam sample tested over a pressure range of 1–3 MPa. The results verify the calculation based on the model consisting the intrinsic thermal conductivity and the correlation of constriction resistance to the actual area of contact. The area of contact is evaluated analytically as a function of pore size (5–40 PPI), porosity (0.88–0.95), orientation of struts, and the cut plane location of idealized tetrakaidecahedron (TKDH) structure. The model is developed based on assumptions of elastic deformations and TKDH structures which are applicable in the high porosity range of 0.85–0.95. An optimum value of porosity for minimizing the overall interface thermal resistance was determined with the model and experimentally validated.

scholarly journals A Review of Thermo-Hydraulic Performance of Metal Foam and its Application as Heat Sinks for Electronics Cooling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongtong Li ◽  
Liang Gong ◽  
Minghai Xu ◽  
Yogendra Joshi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
Electronics Cooling ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Hydraulic Performance ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
High Porosity

Abstract High porosity metal foams offer large surface area per unit volume and have been considered as effective candidates for convection heat transfer enhancement, with applications as heat sinks in electronics cooling. In this paper, the research progress in thermo-hydraulic performance characterization of metal foams and their application as heat sinks for electronics cooling are reviewed. We focus on natural convection, forced convection, flow boiling, and solid/liquid phase change using phase change materials (PCMs). Under these heat transfer conditions, the effects of various parameters influencing the performance of metal foam heat sink are discussed. It is concluded that metal foams demonstrate promising capability for heat transfer augmentation, but some key issues still need to be investigated regarding the fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer to enable the development of more efficient and compact heat sinks.

High Porosity and High Pore Density Thin Copper Foams for Compact Electronics Cooling

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanskar S. Panse ◽  
Prashant Singh ◽  
Srinath V. Ekkad
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Electronics Cooling ◽  
High Heat ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Heat Transfer Area ◽  
Pore Density ◽  
Base Surface ◽  
High Heat Transfer

Porous media like open celled metal foams inherently provide a high heat transfer area per unit volume due to their interconnected cellular structure and are lightweight. High pore density metal foam because of its small overall dimensions and micro feature size shows promise in thermal packaging of compact electronics. An experimental study was carried out to evaluate thermal performance of high porosity (95%) and high pore density (90 PPI) copper foam of size 20 mm × 20 mm × 3 mm in buoyancy induced flow conditions and compared with a baseline smooth surface. The enhanced surface showed about 15% enhancement in average heat transfer coefficient over the baseline case. To optimize the performance further, the foam sample was cut into strips of 20 mm × 5 mm × 3 mm and attached symmetrically on the central 20 mm2 base surface area with inter-spacing of 2.5 mm. This new configuration led to further 15% enhancement in heat transfer even with 25% lesser heat transfer area. This is significant as heat transfer is seen as a strong function of permeability to flow through the structure over heat conduction through it. To test this hypothesis, a third configuration was tested in which the strips were further cut into blocks of 4 mm × 4 mm × 3 mm and attached in a 3 × 3 array on to the base surface. Here, only 36% of the central 20 mm2 base surface area was covered with foam. The heat transfer performance was found to be within ± 10% of the initial metal foam configuration, thereby, supporting the hypothesis. Performance was seen to decrease with increase in inclination from 0° to 30° to 90° with respect to the vertical.

Thermal-Structural Performance of Orthotropic Pin Fin in Electronics Cooling Applications

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. M. Arif ◽  
Syed M. Zubair ◽  
S. Pashah
Keyword(s):  
Heat Sink ◽  
Structural Response ◽  
Electronics Cooling ◽  
Base Plate ◽  
Thermal Design ◽  
Heat Flow Rate ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Conductive Composites ◽  
Thermally Conductive ◽  
As Stress

Thermally conductive composites as compared to metals have reduced density, decreased oxidation, and improved chemical resistance, as well as adjustable properties to fit a given application. However, there are several challenges that need to be addressed before they can be successfully implemented in heat sink design. The interface between the device and heat sink is an important factor in the thermal design of microelectronics cooling. Depending on the thermal interface conditions and material properties, the contact pressure and thermal stress level can attain undesirable values. In this paper, we investigate the effect of thermal interface between the fin and base plate on thermal-structural behavior of heat sinks. A coupled-field (thermal-structural) analysis using finite element method is performed to predict temperature as well as stress fields in the interface region. In addition temperature and heat flow rate predictions are supported through analytical results. effect of various interface geometrical (such as slot-depth, axial-gap, and radial-gap) and contact properties (such as air gap with surface roughness and gaps filled with interface material) on the resulting thermal-structural response is investigated with respect to four interface materials combinations, and it is found that the thermal performance is most sensitive to the slot-depth compared to any other parameter.

Jet Impingement Heat Transfer Enhancement by Packing High-Porosity Thin Metal Foams Between Jet Exit Plane and Target Surface

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Srivatsan Madhavan ◽  
Prashant Singh ◽  
Srinath Ekkad
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Jet Impingement ◽  
Target Surface ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Thin Metal ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Pumping Power ◽  
Transfer Enhancement

High-porosity metal foams are known for providing high heat transfer rates, as they provide a significant increase in wetted surface area as well as highly tortuous flow paths resulting in enhanced mixing. Further, jet impingement offers high convective cooling, particularly at the jet footprint areas on the target surface due to flow stagnation. In this study, high-porosity thin metal foams were subjected to array jet impingement, for a special crossflow scheme. High porosity (92.65%), high pore density (40 pores per inch (ppi)), and thin foams (3 mm) have been used. In order to reduce the pumping power requirements imposed by full metal foam design, two striped metal foam configurations were also investigated. For that, the jets were arranged in 3 × 6 array (x/dj = 3.42, y/dj = 2), such that the crossflow is dominantly sideways. Steady-state heat transfer experiments have been conducted for varying jet-to-target plate distance z/dj = 0.75, 2, and 4 for Reynolds numbers ranging from 3000 to 12,000. The baseline case was jet impingement onto a smooth target surface. Enhancement in heat transfer due to impingement onto thin metal foams has been evaluated against the pumping power penalty. For the case of z/dj = 0.75 with the base surface fully covered with metal foam, an average heat transfer enhancement of 2.42 times was observed for a concomitant pressure drop penalty of 1.67 times over the flow range tested.

Effect of Metal Foam Thickness and Pore Density on Array Jet Impingement Heat Transfer

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prashant Singh ◽  
Mingyang Zhang ◽  
Roop L. Mahajan
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Heated Surface ◽  
Jet Impingement ◽  
Hydraulic Performance ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Pore Density ◽  
Foam Thickness ◽  
Jet Array

Abstract High porosity metal foam is a popular option for high performance heat exchangers as it offers significantly larger area per unit volume for heat dissipation as compared to other cooling techniques by convection. Further, metal foams provide highly tortuous flow paths resulting in thermal dispersion assisted by enhanced mixing. This paper reports an experimental study on jet array impingement onto high-porosity (ε∼0.95) thin aluminum foams. Our goal was to study the effect of foam thickness on convective transport and determine the optimum combination of foam thickness and pore density for maximum gain in thermal-hydraulic performance. To this end, three different pore-density foams (5, 10 and 20 pores per inch, ppi) were tested with three different jet array (5 × 5) impingement configurations (x/dj = 2,3 and 5), where “x” is the distance between any two adjacent jets and “dj” is the jet diameter. For the three pore densities selected, six values of foam thickness — 6.35 mm, 12.7 mm and 19.05 mm for the 20 ppi foam, 12.7 mm and 19.05 mm for the 10 ppi foam, and 12.7 mm for the 5 ppi foam — were deployed. The minimum thickness for each of the ppi value was dictated by the vendor’s manufacturing constraint. The thermal performance of these foams was compared against the orthogonal jet impingement onto a smooth heated surface, for which the distance between the jet exit plane and the heated surface was maintained at the foam thickness level. The data indicates that for a given pore density, thin foams have higher heat transfer rates compared to those for thicker foams, especially with jet configurations with larger open area ratios. The gain is due to the increased jet penetration and foam volume usage in thin foams compared to those for thick foams. Of the different pore density and foam thickness combinations, a 12.70 mm/20 ppi combination was found to have the highest thermal hydraulic performance.

Impact of thermal interface material on luminous flux curve of InGaAlP low-power light-emitting diodes

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muna E. Raypah ◽  
Mutharasu Devarajan ◽  
Shahrom Mahmud
Keyword(s):  
Low Power ◽  
Thermal Resistance ◽  
Thermal Management ◽  
Light Output ◽  
Luminous Flux ◽  
Thermal Interface Material ◽  
Junction Temperature ◽  
Thermal Interface ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Thermally Conductive

Purpose One major problem in the lighting industry is the thermal management of the devices. Handling of thermal resistance from solder point to the ambiance of the light-emitting diode (LED) package is linked to the external thermal management that includes a selection of the cooling mode, design of heatsink/substrate and thermal interface material (TIM). Among the significant factors that increase the light output of the of the LED system are efficient substrate and TIM. In this work, the influence of TIM on the luminous flux performance of commercial indium gallium aluminium phosphide (InGaAlP) low-power (LP) LEDs was investigated. Design/methodology/approach One batch of LEDs was mounted directly onto substrates which were glass-reinforced epoxy (FR4) and aluminium-based metal-core printed circuit boards (MCPCBs) with a dielectric layer of different thermal conductivities. Another batch of LEDs was prepared in a similar way, but a layer of TIM was embedded between the LED package and substrate. The TIMs were thermally conductive epoxy (TCE) and thermally conductive adhesive (TCA). The LED parameters were measured by using the integrated system of thermal transient tester (T3Ster) and thermal-radiometric characterization of LEDs at various input currents. Findings With the employment of TIM, the authors found that the LED’s maximum luminous flux was significantly higher than the value mentioned in the LED datasheet, and that a significant reduction in thermal resistance and junction temperature was revealed. The results showed that for a system with low thermal resistance, the maximum luminous flux appeared to occur at a higher power level. It was found that the maximum luminous flux was 24.10, 28.40 and 36.00 lm for the LEDs mounted on the FR4 and two MCPCBs, respectively. After TCA application on the LEDs, the maximum luminous flux values were 32.70, 36.60 and 37.60 lm for the FR4 and MCPCBs, respectively. Moreover, the findings demonstrated that the performance of the LED mounted on the FR4 substrate was more affected by the employment of the TIM than that of MCPCBs. Research limitations/implications One of the major problems in the lighting industry is the thermal management of the device. In many low-power LED applications, the air gap between the two solder pads is not filled up. Heat flow is restricted by the air gap leading to thermal build-up and higher thermal resistance resulting in lower maximum luminous flux. Among the significant factors that increase the light output of the LED system are efficient substrate and TIM. Practical implications The findings in this work can be used as a method to improve thermal management of LP LEDs by applying thermal interface materials that can offer more efficient and brighter LP LEDs. Using aluminium-based substrates can also offer similar benefits. Social implications Users of LP LEDs can benefit from the findings in this work. Brighter automotive lighting (signalling and backlighting) can be achieved, and better automotive lighting can offer better safety for the people on the street, especially during raining and foggy weather. User can also use a lower LED power rating to achieve similar brightness level with LED with higher power rating. Originality/value Better thermal management of commercial LP LEDs was achieved with the employment of thermal interface materials resulting in lower thermal resistance, lower junction temperature and brighter LEDs.

Enhanced Thermal Performance of Internal Y-Shaped Bifurcation Microchannel Heat Sinks With Metal Foams

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Shen ◽  
Xueting Liu ◽  
Hongbin Yan ◽  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Bengt Sunden
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Management ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Electronic Devices ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
High Power Density ◽  
Pore Density ◽  
Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Microchannel Heat Sinks

Internal Y-shaped bifurcation has been proved to be an advantageous way on improving thermal performance of microchannel heat sinks according to the previous research. Metal foams are known due to their predominate performance such as low-density, large surface area, and high thermal conductivity. In this paper, different parameters of metal foams in Y-shaped bifurcation microchannel heat sinks are designed and investigated numerically. The effects of Reynolds number, porosity of metal foam, and the pore density (PPI) of the metal foam on the microchannel heat sinks are analyzed in detail. It is found that the internal Y-shaped bifurcation microchannel heat sinks with metal foam exhibit better heat transfer enhancement and overall thermal performance. This research provides broad application prospects for heat sinks with metal foam in the thermal management of high power density electronic devices.

scholarly journals Various Trade-Off Scenarios in Thermo-Hydrodynamic Performance of Metal Foams Due to Variations in Their Thickness and Structural Conditions

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 8343
Author(s):  
Trilok G ◽  
N Gnanasekaran ◽  
Moghtada Mobedi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Flow Resistance ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Vertical Channel ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Hydrodynamic Performance ◽  
Pore Density ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Topsis Technique

The long standing issue of increased heat transfer, always accompanied by increased pressure drop using metal foams, is addressed in the present work. Heat transfer and pressure drop, both of various magnitudes, can be observed in respect to various flow and heat transfer influencing aspects of considered metal foams. In this regard, for the first time, orderly varying pore density (characterized by visible pores per inch, i.e., PPI) and porosity (characterized by ratio of void volume to total volume) along with varied thickness are considered to comprehensively analyze variation in the trade-off scenario between flow resistance minimization and heat transfer augmentation behavior of metal foams with the help of numerical simulations and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) which is a multi-criteria decision-making tool to address the considered multi-objective problem. A numerical domain of vertical channel is modelled with zone of metal foam porous media at the channel center by invoking LTNE and Darcy–Forchheimer models. Metal foams of four thickness ratios are considered (1, 0.75, 0.5 and 0.25), along with varied pore density (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 PPI), each at various porosity conditions of 0.8, 0.85, 0.9 and 0.95 porosity. Numerically obtained pressure and temperature field data are critically analyzed for various trade-off scenarios exhibited under the abovementioned variable conditions. A type of metal foam based on its morphological (pore density and porosity) and configurational (thickness) aspects, which can participate in a desired trade-off scenario between flow resistance and heat transfer, is illustrated.

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