Convection can be determined as the transfer of heat energy by the movement of matter. There
is two type of convection that is natural and forced convection. Natural convection is the mechanism
that used to transport the heat by density differences in the fluid occurring due to the temperature
gradients. Forced convection is the mechanisms also transport the heat in fluid motion that generated
by an external source such as pump, fan and suction device. Forced convection is more efficient
compare to natural convection.
Objective:
Thermal resistance for flat plate, finned heatsink are measured under natural and forced
convection conditions.
Methodology/ Procedures:
Experiment 1 (Forced Convection)
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Results:
Power : 15W
Surface areas :
Finned Heatsink : 0.125m
Surface
Air flow
velocity, v
(m/s)
Heat sink
Temperature,
Tp (C)
Ambient
Temperature,
Ta (C)
Temperature
rise Tp-Ta
(C)
Finned heat
sink
0
0.5
1.5
0.5
68.5
60.7
57.5
70.2
25.0
25.4
25.1
24.9
43.5
35.3
32.4
45.3
Flat plat
Thermal
resistance
(Tp-Ta)/Q,
(C/W)
2.90
2.35
2.16
3.02
Thermal Resistance
3.02
2.35
2.9
2.16
2
1
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.2
1.4
1.6
Air velocity
Finned heatsink
Flat plate
Series1
20
10
0
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Time (min)
Discussion:
1. I think that the causes of the different thermal performance (temperature) for finned/pinned
heatsinks and flat plate is because when compared the thermal resistance of these three
heatsinks and plate in this experiment, it shows that for finned heatsink, the thermal resistance
is 2.35C/W which is the lowest compared to pinned heatsink(0.82C/W) and flat
plate(3.02C/W). This happened due to the heatsinks have different the number of total
surface area. We know that, when the number of surface area is increased, the number of
thermal resistance will decrease. By comparing these 3 heatsinks and plate we can conclude
that finned heatsink have larger surface area compare to other.
2. During the experiment, the heatsink temperature is changes as air velocity changes due to no
cooling take place when air temperature reached heatsink temperature. In the experiment
showed that the finned heatsink temperature changes where there is air flow velocity changes.
If the air flow velocity increased it will take a shorter time to achieve heatsink temperature.
3. By conducting this experiment, the possible causes of error in temperature measurement is the
apparatus of the experiment. This is because while conducting the experiment, the value of
the apparatus is quite changes in certain time. The sensitivity of the value of air flow velocity
changes about 0.1 m/s while conducting the experiment. Thus, we can conclude that the
value of air flow velocity changes due to the value of temperature changes. Besides that,
another possible error is human error which is that might be taking the value of the
temperatures inconsistently. Between both errors, the most significant error is from the
apparatus of the experiment which give extremely effects to the reading value of the
temperature.
Conclusion:
As conclusion, surface area of heatsink and the number of air flow velocity can affected the number
of thermal resistance. From the experiment we can conclude that if increased the number of air flow
velocity and the surface area of heatsink become larger, the lower the thermal resistance. When there
is no air flow velocity, it much take longer time to reached heatsink temperature because natural
convection take place by cooled it down. Thus forced convection take shorter time to reached heatsink
temperature.
References:
1. http://www.sfu.ca/~mbahrami/ENSC%20388/Notes/Natural%20Convection.pdf
2. http://people.csail.mit.edu/jaffer/SimRoof/Convection/