A Parametric CFD Study on the Cooling Capability of a Rectangular Channel Heat Sink

This paper is focused on the study to determine an effective method for the thermal management and cooling of power electronic packages used in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). It has been carried out with the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). After extensive study, one such method chosen for the cooling application is the use of fluid-cooled heat sinks. Modeling and simulation have been carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics. Validation of the CFD results from the research paper by Quadir et al. was performed. Building upon the validation, a simple rectangular channeled heat sink was built for analysis. Furthermore, a parametric analysis was carried out by varying the channel height and channel width of the heat sink to study their effects on cooling. It was determined that an increase in the height and width together leads to a decrease in the outlet temperature and also a decrease in heat transfer coefficient.