Date of Graduation

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Han Hu

Committee Member

Keith Walters

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a ducted test facility designed to evaluate heat sinks efficiency at varying air velocities. This enables the evaluation of both heat transfer and pressure drop performance. These metrics are essential to the overall efficiency of heat sinks and help identify the optimal air velocity to achieve the desired thermal performance. A standard plate fin heat sink was used as a control for comparison to a novel heat sink. The specialized heat sink geometry was generated using nTop, a generative design software focused on additive manufacturing. This design was fabricated via Direct Metal Laser Sintering and tested within the air-cooled test facility. Experimental results quantify the performance improvements of the optimized geometry compared to standard heat sink geometries.

Keywords

Additive manufacturing Heat sinks; Air-Cooled Heat Sink Testing; Forced Convection Heat Transfer; Ducted Wind Tunnel Facility

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