Design and optimization of 3D printed air-cooled heat sinks based on genetic algorithms

Conference · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/ITEC.2017.7993346· OSTI ID:1394305

Wu, Tong  ^[1]; Ozpineci, Burak  ^[1]; Chinthavali, Madhu Sudhan  ^[1]; Wang, Zhiqiang  ^[1]; Debnath, Suman  ^[1]; Campbell, Steven  ^[1]

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1. ORNL

Enhancing power density and reliability of powerelectronics is extremely important in power electronicsapplications. One of the key challenges in the design process isto design the optimum heat sink. In this paper, an algorithm isproposed to design air-cooled heat sinks using genetic algorithm(GA) and finite element analysis (FEA) simulations. While theGA generates a population of candidate heat sinks in eachiteration, FEA simulations are used to evaluate the fitnessfunction of each. The fitness function considered in this paper isthe maximum junction temperature of the semiconductordevices. With an approach that prefers “survival of the fittest”,a heat sink providing better performance than the conventionalheat sinks is obtained. The simulation and experimentalevaluations of the optimized air-cooled heat sink are alsoincluded in the paper.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1394305
• Resource Relation: Conference: 2017 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference & Expo (ITEC 2017) - Chicago, Illinois, United States of America - 6/22/2017 12:00:00 AM-6/24/2017 12:00:00 AM
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English