Design and Development of an Experimental Test Rig for Heat Sinks

Abstract: Heat sinks are used mainly to take away the excessive heat which are produced in a component. This transfer of heat enables a smooth operation of the system with the heat generating component. The efficiency of heat sink is often dependent on the amount of heat it can take away within the smallest duration of time. Several designs and manufacturing techniques have been developed to improve this performance of heat sinks. This project aims at building a test rig which can be used to test the efficiency of heat sinks. The test rig should be designed to be modular, i.e. it should be able to test heat sinks of different sizes and also adhering to the design requirements. The project started with a broad information search on heat sinks and different testing methods. A system architecture was formulated for this test rig as a beginning stage and to find the different architectural components. The main principal components were selected fulfilling the design requirements. A chiller with pump, a flow meter with controller, temperature and pressure sensors and piping’s including a flexible pipe were the main components of the system created. When the specific components were chosen, the design was embodied and the components were arranged in a compact manner as a SolidEdge CAD-model. After several design iterations, a final design was selected. The experimental test rig was then built in the flow lab. The built experimental test setup is able to be adjusted to install heat sinks of different sizes making it modular in design. Future work to improve the performance of the test rig is also suggested.