Optimization of CPU Heatsink Design, A Simulation-Based Study on Temperature Distribution with Different Fin Number

Dona Setiawan; Agung Priyanto; Samsul Ma'arif; Okta Rizkyanto Putra

Articles

Optimization of CPU Heatsink Design, A Simulation-Based Study on Temperature Distribution with Different Fin Number

Dona Setiawan Universitas SarjanaTamansiswa, Indonesia Correspondence [email protected]

Agung Priyanto , Indonesia Correspondence [email protected]

Samsul Ma'arif , Indonesia Correspondence [email protected]

Okta Rizkyanto Putra , Indonesia Correspondence [email protected]

Abstract

In this era of digitalization, a fast processor (CPU) is needed to meet computing needs, but a fast processor can produce high temperatures. With the water cooling technique, the heatsink can help in cooling the processor with the help of a blower/fan. A numerical study was conducted to review the temperature distribution in the heatsink with perforated fin, the effect of the number of holes, and the effect of inlet speed on the CPU temperature, in this study regular fin and perforated fin with 10, 20, and 30 were used.

CPU performance relies heavily on an effective thermal management system, where the heatsink plays an important role in dissipating excess heat. This study aims to optimize the design of the CPU heatsink by analyzing the effect of the number of fins on temperature distribution. Simulations were performed using computational software to evaluate multiple heatsink models with varying numbers of fins under the same thermal load conditions. The observed parameters include maximum temperature, heat flux, and temperature distribution on the surface of the heatsink.

The simulation results show that an optimal number of fins can significantly improve heat dissipation performance, while an excessive number of fins can actually inhibit airflow and decrease thermal efficiency. This study provides an overview of the thermal behavior of heatsinks and becomes a reference in designing more efficient cooling systems for electronic devices.

Keywords :

Heatsink fin Cooling Temperature Heat Flux

There is no Figure or data content available for this article

References

[1] O. Ozbalci, A. Dogan, and M. Asilturk, “Heat Transfer Performance of Plate Fin and Pin Fin Heat Sinks Using Al2O3/H2O Nanofluid in Electronic Cooling,” Processes, vol. 10, no. 8, p. 1644, Aug. 2022, doi: 10.3390/pr10081644.
[2] P. Shojaee Nasirabadi and J. H. Hattel, “A 3D numerical study of humidity evolution and condensation risk on a printed circuit board (PCB) exposed to harsh ambient conditions,” Microelectron. Reliab., vol. 83, pp. 39–49, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2018.02.008.
[3] A. Yahyaee, A. S. Bahman, and F. Blaabjerg, “A modification of offset strip fin heatsink with high-performance cooling for IGBT modules,” Appl. Sci., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 1–15, 2020, doi: 10.3390/app10031112.
[4] K. Boonlom et al., “Optimization of Heatsink Design for Enhanced Thermal Management in LED-Based Optical Wireless Communication Systems for In-Pipe Inspection Robots,” in 2024 Research, Invention, and Innovation Congress: Innovative Electricals and Electronics (RI2C), Aug. 2024, pp. 310–315, doi: 10.1109/RI2C64012.2024.10784399.
[5] A. Mueller, C. Buennagel, S. Monir, A. Sharp, Y. Vagapov, and A. Anuchin, “Numerical Design and Optimisation of a Novel Heatsink using ANSYS Steady-State Thermal Analysis,” in 2020 27th International Workshop on Electric Drives: MPEI Department of Electric Drives 90th Anniversary (IWED), Jan. 2020, pp. 1–5, doi: 10.1109/IWED48848.2020.9069568.
[6] D. Galiev, W. Tang, and Z. Wu, “Optimization of Liquid Cooling Double-layer Heatsink for SiC Power Modules,” in 2024 IEEE 8th Conference on Energy Internet and Energy System Integration (EI2), Nov. 2024, pp. 3696–3701, doi: 10.1109/EI264398.2024.10991847.
[7] G. Farrell, R. Nimmagadda, S. N. Joshi, D. J. Lohan, E. M. Dede, and T. Persoons, “Development of a compact 3D manifold design for cooling of internal heatsinks using external airflow,” Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 279, no. PA, p. 127444, 2025, doi: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2025.127444.
[8] A. S. Mayil and C. Timuralp, “Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Cooling System Performance in Induction Hobs: A Comparison of Heatsink Designs,” Appl. Sci., vol. 15, no. 11, 2025, doi: 10.3390/app15115995.
[9] S. Subramani and M. Devarajan, “Influence of extended surface area of heatsink on heat transfer: design and analysis,” Microelectron. Int., vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 66–74, Feb. 2024, doi: 10.1108/MI-09-2022-0171.
[10] Y. Dai et al., “A Cross-Scale Electrothermal Co-Simulation Approach for Power MOSFETs at Device–Package–Heatsink–Board Levels,” Micromachines, vol. 15, no. 11, 2024, doi: 10.3390/mi15111336.
[11] A. G et al., “Study of impact of nano fluids on performance of microchannel heat exchangers using CFD,” Int. J. Thermofluids, vol. 24, no. September, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.ijft.2024.100836.
[12] T. T. Göksu, “Investigation of pin and perforated heatsink cooling efficiency and temperature distribution,” J. Therm. Anal. Calorim., vol. 149, no. 12, pp. 6517–6529, Jun. 2024, doi: 10.1007/s10973-024-13078-8.
[13] S. I. Guggari, “Analysis of Thermal Performance Metrics—Application to CPU Cooling in HPC Servers,” IEEE Trans. Components, Packag. Manuf. Technol., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 222–232, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TCPMT.2020.3029940.
[14] C. M. Limaye, K. V. Mali, and A. Jomde, “Non uniform pin fin heatsinks for electronic cooling applications,” 2024, p. 130002, doi: 10.1063/5.0229361.
[15] T. P. Gokul Depuk, S. Chandel, and S. Srivastava, “Performance Enhancement of Phase Change Material (PCM) using Porous Medium for Electronics Cooling in Aerospace: A Review with Research Challenges,” Int. J. Environ. Sci., vol. 11, no. 1S, pp. 537–551, 2025, doi: 10.64252/s1933524.
[16] M. Saeed and M.-H. Kim, “Heat transfer enhancement using nanofluids (Al2O3-H2O) in mini-channel heatsinks,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 120, pp. 671–682, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.12.075.
[17] Y. Sun, B. Sun, C. Fu, C. Peng, and Y. Wang, “Design and numerical investigations of natural convection of heatsink fins with serrated microstructure,” in 2024 4th International Conference on Energy, Power and Electrical Engineering (EPEE), Sep. 2024, pp. 469–474, doi: 10.1109/EPEE63731.2024.10875440.
[18] E. Farsad, M. M. Heyhat, and M. Zabetian Targhi, “On the effect of protrusion positioning in multi-jet microchannel heat sink thermo-hydraulic performance,” Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 156, no. May, p. 107662, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2024.107662.
[19] A. Niazmand, P. Murthy, S. Saini, P. Shahi, P. Bansode, and D. Agonafer, “Numerical analysis of oil immersion cooling of a server using mineral oil and al2o3 nanofluid,” 2020, [Online]. Available: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85098327690&partnerID=40&md5=2905a8fbfad00a70aa7b46f2a560d78d.
[20] L. Xie, X. Yuan, and W. Wang, “Thermal Modeling of Fan-Cooled Plate–Fin Heatsink Considering Air Temperature Rise for Virtual Prototyping of Power Electronics,” IEEE Trans. Components, Packag. Manuf. Technol., vol. 10, no. 11, pp. 1829–1839, 2020, doi: 10.1109/TCPMT.2020.3009156.
[21] A. Shahsavar, M. Shahmohammadi, and I. Baniasad Askari, “The effect of inlet/outlet number and arrangement on hydrothermal behavior and entropy generation of the laminar water flow in a pin-fin heat sink,” Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 127, p. 105500, 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105500.
[22] A. Jebelli, N. Lotfi, M. S. Zare, and M. C. E. Yagoub, “Advanced Thermal Management for High-Power ICs: Optimizing Heatsink and Airflow Design,” Appl. Sci., vol. 14, no. 20, 2024, doi: 10.3390/app14209406.
[23] D. Ganesan and V. Ramalingam, “Effect of Solar Irradiation on Thermal Performance of Heatsink—Numerical and Experimental Study,” IEEE Trans. Components, Packag. Manuf. Technol., vol. 11, no. 9, pp. 1471–1479, 2021, doi: 10.1109/TCPMT.2021.3105256.
[24] B. Yin, R. Han, K. Guo, Y. Wang, L. Gao, and C. Li, “Nature Convection Heatsink Modeling and Optimization Based on Nusselt Number Correlation,” in 2023 IEEE 2nd International Power Electronics and Application Symposium (PEAS), Nov. 2023, pp. 2569–2573, doi: 10.1109/PEAS58692.2023.10395572.
[25] I. Belov, M. Payandeh, A. E. W. Jarfors, P. Leisner, and M. Wessén, “Effect of fillets on heat transfer in a rheocast aluminium heatsink,” in 2016 17th International Conference on Thermal, Mechanical and Multi-Physics Simulation and Experiments in Microelectronics and Microsystems (EuroSimE), 2016, pp. 1–6, doi: 10.1109/EuroSimE.2016.7463320.
[26] T. T. Göksu, “Investigation of pin and perforated heatsink cooling efficiency and temperature distribution,” J. Therm. Anal. Calorim., vol. 149, no. 12, pp. 6517–6529, 2024, doi: 10.1007/s10973-024-13078-8.
[27] U. A. Khan, H. Ullah, and A. Nawaz, “Design and Optimization of Heatsink for an Active CPU Cooler using Numerical Simulations,” J. Adv. Res. Fluid Mech. Therm. Sci., vol. 111, no. 2, pp. 214–224, 2023, doi: 10.37934/arfmts.111.2.214224.
[28] S. Rostami, A. A. Nadooshan, A. Raisi, and M. Bayareh, “Optimization of different pin-fins on heat transfer and pressure drop of a heat sink for antifreeze liquid case,” J. Taiwan Inst. Chem. Eng., vol. 148, no. April, p. 104811, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.jtice.2023.104811.
[29] E. Salamatbakhsh, Ö. Bayer, and İ. Solmaz, “Effect of impinging flow on hydrothermal characteristics of a pipe-network mini channel heatsink,” Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 154, no. March, 2024, doi: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2024.107407.
[30] L. Zhou et al., “Optimal Design of Pin-Fin Heatsinks for SiC Power Modules Based on Analytical Thermal Modeling and TLBO Algorithm,” in 2023 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference & Expo (ITEC), Jun. 2023, pp. 1–6, doi: 10.1109/ITEC55900.2023.10187031.

There is no Supplemental content for this article.

How to Cite This

Setiawan, D., Priyanto, A., Ma’arif, S., & Rizkyanto Putra, O. (2026). Optimization of CPU Heatsink Design, A Simulation-Based Study on Temperature Distribution with Different Fin Number. Creative Research in Engineering (CERIE), 6(1), 45–55. Retrieved from http://jurnalnasional.ump.ac.id/index.php/CERIE/article/view/28485