Heat Transfer Capacity of Lotus-Type Porous Copper Heat Sink(<Special Issue>Micro Mechanical Engineering)

Lotus-type porous copper is a form of copper that includes many straight pores, which are produced by the precipitation of supersaturated gas dissolved in the molten metal during solidification. The lotus-type porous copper is attractive as a heat sink because a higher heat transfer capacity is obtained as the pore diameter decreases. We investigate a fin model for predicting the heat transfer capacity of the lotus-type porous copper. Its heat transfer capacity is verified to be predictable via the straight fin model, in which heat conduction in the porous metal and the heat transfer to the fluid in the pores are taken into consideration by comparison with a numerical analysis. We both experimentally and analytically determine the heat transfer capacities of three types of heat sink: with conventional groove fins, with groove fins that have a smaller fin gap (micro-channels) and with lotus-type porous copper fins. The conventional groove fins have a fin gap of 3mm and a fin thickness of 1mm, the micro-channels have a fin gap of 0.5mm and a fin thickness of 0.5mm, and the lotus-type porous copper fins have pores with a diameter of 0.3mm and a porosity of 0.39. The lotus-type porous copper fins were found to have a heat transfer capacity 4 times greater than the conventional groove fins and 1.3 times greater than the micro-channel heat sink under the same pumping power.