A Study on the Thermal Management of Central Processing Unit Using Fan Heat Sinks

• Main Authors: Tan-Wiwin Sutanto, 陳順和
• Other Authors: Jyh-Tong Teng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04532097615606583695

碩士 === 中原大學 === 機械工程研究所 === 101 === The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the microprocessor within a personal computer that performs all instructions and operations necessary for the computer to function. Higher speed and smaller size in computer processors have resulted in an increased demand for thermal management systems. When driven at high clock speeds, they are capable of producing substantial amounts of heat and need to be cooled to prevent failure. Many cooling system is used to dissipate heat from CPU. One of the CPU’s heat dissipation methods is using fan heat sink. Heat sink is easily to be manufactured, relatively low in cost, light in weight, and can become an adequate cooling means with good reliability In this study, 95-W of CPU Pentium D082 2.8GHz was used as a heat source for studying the effectiveness of fan heat sink. The effectiveness was measured by the thermal resistance value between the CPU and the heat sink. Lower thermal resistance value is needed for higher heat dissipation capability. Through the experiments, the effects of heat sink material, number of fin, fin shape, and fin complexity on the thermal resistance values of the CPU were investigated. From this study it was shown that the thermal resistance was dominantly influenced by the heat sink material, followed by the heat sink fin type. Moreover, the effect of heat spreader to the heat sink resistance value was also investigated. Three types of heat spreader used in this study were aluminum block, copper block, and vapor chamber. Each of these heat spreaders was inserted between the CPU and fan heat sink. The results showed that vapor chamber is proven to be the most efficient heat spreader. Adding vapor chamber would increase the heat sink heat dissipation performance, measured by having the lowest thermal resistance value compared with using other types of heat spreaders. Numerical simulations of ANSYS ICEPAK 12.1 were used to analyze CPU and fan heat sink heat dissipation and to visualize the temperature distribution of the system. It was found that the results obtained from numerical simulations were in good agreement with those obtained from the experimental data, with a percentage difference of less than or equal to 10%. ANSYS ICEPAK 12.1 was also proven to be suitable software for electronics cooling simulations.