Heatsink question

[kan3]

I'm trying to alter a heat sink design to save on the thickness of stock used. I did this picture real quick and would like to know if changing the fins from straight to L shaped would work ok.

This would allow me to shrink the depth and at the same time increase the length of the fin. My design right now is over kill for what it is doing but don't want to degrade performance too much.

 

[artax]

From what I know its all about surface area. And that you still have.

I can imagine that the cooling is reduced but not dramatically

 

[jtr1962]

Is this a fan-forced application or natural convection? If the latter, then make sure you mount the heat sink with fins vertically. As to your question, if this is natural convection, then you shouldn't lost much cooling with the alternate design. If it's fan-forced, then that depends upon where the fan is mounted (and for fan-forced a lot of lower but more densely packed fins would be better).

 

[kan3]

It's NC with vertical oriented fins.



Thanks, this will allow me to alter my design some.

 

[J_C]

You would be better off using more, shorter fins and keeping them straight. Your effective surface area is reduced when you have only the tiny slit inbetween each fin.

 

[snarfer]

What J_C said. It probably makes a big difference. The scale of your drawing is also important. You may not need the entire length of the fins anyway. You might be able to use more, and shorter, fins. But it's unlikely.

 

[kan3]

I actually changed my design and went with a straight fin setup. I altered some dimensions and moved up a .25" in material size so straight fins worked out.