A method for simulating three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of impinging air flow and heat transfer in plate-fin type heat sinks has been developed. In this method, all the fins of an individual heat sink and the air between themare replaced with a single, uniform element having an appropriate flow resistance and thermal conductivity. The convective heat transfer between the air and the element is calculated as that between parallel plates. With this element, fine calculationmeshes adapted to the shape of the actual heat sink are not needed, so the size of the calculation mesh is much smaller than that of conventional methods. To validate this method, simulations and experiments were carried out with heat sinks of variousdimensions and flow velocities. And these simulation results of pressure drop and thermal resistance show good agreement with corresponding experimental measurements.
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