Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Fin Geometry Effects on Heat Sink Performance in Thermoelectric Air‐Cooling Systems

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effect of fin geometry, specifically fin number and fin height, on the thermal and hydraulic performance of heat sinks used in an air‐cooling thermoelectric (TEC) system. In a combined numerical simulation experimental validation approach, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to analyze heat sink cooling with varying configurations of 15, 21, and 27 fins with varying fin heights of 28, 32, and 36 mm for air velocities ranging from 1 to 3 m/s. It was found that with a larger number of fins, from 15 to 27, a maximum enhancement of 15% for the convection heat transfer coefficient was obtained, with a maximum increment of roughly about 20% for pressure drop being obtained due to higher airflow resistance decreasing system efficiency. Increasing fin height from 28 to 32 mm increased dissipation rates, with a maximum value for thermal performance factor (TPF) of 1.09 being obtained. Optimal configuration was seen to be 21 fins with 32 mm fin height with a minimum cold side temperature of 7.5°C under 1 m/s airspeed while effectively trading off thermal transfer enhancement with airflow resistance. It was seen that experimental measurements precisely agreed with numerical calculations with approximate differences less than 5%, confirming the credibility of the CFD model. This study provides practical guidelines for optimizing heat sink geometries for thermoelectric air‐cooled applications toward acceleration of effective compact environmentally nonhazardous solid‐state cooling technologies.