Topology Optimization of Liquid-cooled Heat Sinks with Different Inlets and Outlets

With the increasing energy consumption of electronic equipment, heat sink design becomes a significant problem to be solved. Topology optimization for conjugated heat transfer problems in heat sinks has attracted numerous attention recently for its high degree of freedom in design. In this paper, liquid-cooled heat sinks with five different inlet and outlet structure combinations are optimized using bi-objective topology optimization based on the density method. The channel layouts in heat sinks are optimized and multiple optimal structures and corresponding Pareto frontlines are obtained. The results show that the well-distributed fluid can enhance the thermal performance of the heat sink. Heat sinks with inlets and outlets having natural distribution functions have better performance. It is also found that larger solid thermal conductivity can cause fewer winding channels.