Thermal management and multi-objective optimization of an air-cooled heat sink based on flat miniature-heat-pipe arrays

This study proposes a novel heat sink for insulated-gate bipolar transistor modules utilizing flat miniature-heat-pipe arrays. The influence of heat load, cooled-air temperature, and distribution mode on the start-up and heat dissipation performance of the proposed heat sink with and without aluminum plate was investigated experimentally and numerically. As a result, the start-up time of the heat sink with aluminum plate was approximately 2–3 min, and maximum temperature for heat sink was 76.8 °C under cooled-air parallel flow conditions when heat flux density was 6.67 W cm −2 and cooled-air temperature was 40 °C, which was 4.6 °C lower than that obtained without aluminum plate. In addition, the study found that cooled-air parallel distribution mode was better for heat dissipation than opposite distribution mode, and that maximum temperature decreased more obviously as the heat load increased. The predicted models between two responses and four independent design factors were obtained by response surface method, and the interactive impacts of different factors on responses were studied. Finally, multi-objective joint optimization was developed to determine the optimal dimensions of the aluminum plate width, longitudinal fin height, spacing, and thickness, which were 82.02, 48.79, 1.5, and 0.58 mm, respectively, to minimize maximum temperature and materials cost. Graphical abstract