Topology-optimized aerogel heat sink for enhanced electronic cooling performance

Abstract

Efficient thermal management is important for modern electronic devices. Traditional heat sinks often fail to meet the increasing cooling demand owing to material and design limitations. Recently, incorporating porous media in heat sinks has emerged as a promising approach to enhance heat dissipation; it increases the heat exchange surface area without the addition of significant weight. Accordingly, this study investigated the use of thermofluid topology optimization for forced convection air-cooled heat sinks containing graphene aerogel, an ultralight porous medium, to enhance heat dissipation. A heat sink with three-dimensional heat and mass transfer phenomena was designed by using a computationally efficient two-dimensional single-layer model. We investigated the effects of the aerogel's thermal and transport properties on the heat sink's heat dissipation performance. The integration of the graphene aerogel with the heat sink could reduce the heat sink's thermal resistance by about 28.4% compared with optimized heat sinks without aerogel. Furthermore, the integration facilitated the reduction of the solid volume fraction by an amount equal to or greater than 14% without affecting the thermal performance, which highlighted the lightweight nature of the aerogel-integrated heat sink. Additionally, the minimum values of the physical properties required to outperform the optimized heat sink without aerogel were determined by analyzing the thermal resistance contour plot of the heat sink with aerogel. The findings of this study highlight the potential of combining advanced materials with optimization techniques for developing lightweight high-performance heat sinks for efficient cooling in electronics. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd