Forced convection heat transfer in heat sinks with topologies based on triply periodic minimal surfaces

This study numerically and experimentally investigates the forced convection heat transfer in three mathematically designed heat sinks with lattice topologies based on triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS). The TPMS lattices consist of periodically arranged Diamond (D) or Gyroid (G) unit cells of 10 mm size and 80% porosity, considering two TPMS topologies; solid and sheet networks. This investigation examines the thermohydraulic performance of these novel heat sinks and compares them with other heat sinks in the literature. The hydrodynamic characteristics are studied with an airflow channel, and the thermal performance is explored with a validated numerical model. The results show that form drag dominates pressure drop in the range 2000 < Re < 7000. Due to the lowest surface area and largest pore size, the G-Solid heat sink reported the lowest friction factor (f). Concerning the thermal performance, G-Sheet showed the highest areal convection heat transfer coefficient (hA) and the lowest thermal resistance (Rth) as a result of having the highest surface area. For a given pumping power, D-Solid exhibits the highest thermal efficiency (η). This work opens the door for designing novel 3D printable heat sinks and investigating their performance in thermal management systems.