LED heat sink optimisation

The customer

• Medium enterprise
• Sector: Electric equipment manufacturing
• Country: United Kingdom

The project

• Size: 35-50 man-hours
• Duration: 1-2 weeks

The problem

• Unknown cooling capacity and thermal resistance
• High LED module temperature may lead to failure
• Natural convection deemed not enough

Proposed solution

• Model natural convection and radiation to obtain needed heat sink length
• Evaluate different fins and heat sink geometries

The simulations

• Thermal simulation for natural convection (CFD analysis)
• Thermal simulation for different heat sink geometries (CFD analysis)

Project overall results

• Required cooling power obtained. Heat sink optimal geometry and length learned.
• Savings over £8,000 for the customer in prototyping and testing (estimate).
• Savings of more than 5 weeks in development time (estimate).