International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 1193 1201

www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Optimization of the design parameters of Parallel-Plain Fin heat

sink module cooling phenomenon based on the Taguchi methodB
Ko-Ta Chiang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hsiu-Ping Institute of Technology, No. 11, Gungye Rd.,
Dali City, Taichung, Taiwan, 412, ROC
Available online 14 June 2005

Abstract
This paper presents an effective method for predicting and optimizing the cooling performance of Parallel-Plain
Fin (PPF) heat sink module based on the Taguchi method. The numerical simulative analyses of PPF heat sink
module have been constructed to understand the affecting situation of its related modeling parameters. The design
parameters evaluated are the outline design of the heat sink module and the wind capacity of fan, and the highest
temperature (or thermal resistance) of this module is considered as the performance characteristics. Taguchi
method for design of experiment (DOE) and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to efficiently seek
the combination of optimized design parameters. From the numerical simulative analyses, the optimum design
parameters to obtain the lowest value of the highest temperature (or thermal resistance) are found, which is the
target of this research.
D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Optimization; Heat sink; Taguchi method; Design of experiment; Analysis of variance

1. Introduction
Under the trend of development and advancement of the computer science technology and the
manufacturing technology, the design of electronic components are heading in the direction of light, thin,
short and small. Even the structure design of electronic device has become compact. What comes with it
is the problem that under the increased power for the electronic component, relatively its heat
B

Communicated by J.P. Hartnett and W.J. Minkowycz.

T Tel.: +886 4 24961162; fax: +886 4 24961189.
E-mail address: kota@mail.hit.edu.tw.

0735-1933/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2005.05.015

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K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

concentration can raise the temperature on its environment. Especially, the direction that the chip
manufacturing technology is taking, is based on the principles of benhancing the integration densityQ and
bcurtail the coil wire of crystals distanceQ, consequently to enhance chips processing speed and
calculating function, speaking if CPU, strengthen its function will also increase the spread of its heat
capacity. Moreover, the accumulation of large amount of heat capacity can create considerable amount of
heat stress on chips, substrate, and it package. If there is appropriate and effective heat sink design, it will
critically affect the reliability and life span of chip function. Therefore, if electronic devices heat sink
ability is not good, it will be very detrimental to the electronic component. Consequently, heat sink
design of electronic device has become a very important topic to the computer science and technology
industry. Therefore, how to analyze the external flow field of the electronic component, so the heat
capacity result from the operation of the electronic component can appropriately carried out the heat sink
and heat transfer, at the same time, to ensure the reliability and life span of electronic components
function, which can definitely affect computers quality and the competitiveness of its market [14].
As for handling the heat sink problem, the size of its outward design, the amount of fin flake, the gap
of fink flake, the area of its outward surface all have an intimate relation on enhancing its convection
effect and increasing its heat sink ability [5,6]. For the operation of electric fan of heat sink, the
experiment from Obinelo [7] and Wirtz et al. [8] show that changing the installation angle of fans blade
and adjusting the distance between fan and heat sink can improve and enhance its heat sink capacity.
From the above descriptive analysis, the optimal design and selection of effective heat sink module is
becoming one of the primary challenges of the computer science and technology industry. First the
present study will construct a numerical simulation of Parallel-Plain Fin (PPF) heat sink module to
understand the affecting situation of its related modeling parameters. Taguchi method for design of
experiment (DOE) and the analysis of variance (ANOVA), which is currently most widely used on
construction design and the optimized analysis of production process [9], are employed to efficiently
seek the combination of optimized design parameters.

2. Numerical simulation of PPF heat sink module

The product of PPF heat sink module of aluminum alloy for CPU and the configuration of outline
design for this module are shown in Fig. 1. The basic hypotheses are made in analyzing this numerical
model: (1) The fluid medium is air and assumed to be Newtonian fluid. (2) The heat radiation and the
effect of natural convection are neglected. (3) It disregards the effect of roughness on the surface of heat
sink. (4) Its base is subjected by the heat capacity produced by the operation of CPU.
The governing equations of continuity, momentum and energy are described as follows [10,11]:
Bq Bquk
0

Bt
Bxk
q





Buj
Buj
Buj
BP
B
Buk
B
Bui


k
l

quk
Bxj
Bxj
Bxi
Bt
Bxk
Bxk
Bxj
Bxi








Buj Buj
Be
Be
Buk
B
BT
Buk 2
Bui
quk
q
P

k
l

k
Bt
Bxk
Bxj
Bxj
Bxk
Bxk
Bxj
Bxi Bxi

1
2

K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

1195

Fig. 1. The aluminum alloy CPU heat sink module.

Here q is density, u i is the velocity of coordinate x i , P is pressure, e is internal energy of unit mass, T is
temperature, l is the kinetic viscosity coefficient, k is the second viscosity coefficient and dependent
stokes relational equation k = 2l/3.
To calculate the energy between contacting surfaces from thermal model to flowing model [11], we
adopt


4
q hij Aij Ti  Tj
where A ij is the contacting area between surface element I of thermal model and fluid element j of
flowing model, h ij is the local convective heat transfer coefficient of this two elements and calculated
by the thermal loglaw wall function, the function uses Reynolds analysis method to derive a near-wall
momentum wall function [10,11].
To process the analysis of this numerical model, it is assisted by ESC (Electronic System Cooling)
software package of I-Deas Master Series 10, to conduct simulation and solving to analyze the
temperature field and flow field of the entire model. As for the structure of numerical definition of ESC,
it can concurrently process the conjugate heat transfer problem between thermal model and flowing
model. First, to use coupled algebraic multi-grid method to construct governing equation, then to use
element-based finite volume method to obtain flow field solution of flowing model. Moreover, in
seeking solution for thermal model, it uses the unstructured finite element mesh to construct numerical
model, it also uses finite difference method to obtain internal heat transfer of the solid, and the radiation
and the temperature field solution of the convection from the surface of the solid [11]. As for the local
convective heat transfer coefficient h, it utilizes the momentum wall function proposed Kader [12].
This study has set the surrounding environment temperature (i.e., the atmosphere temperature where
the computer case is situated) to be 27.9 8C, the CPU to be AMD Athlon 1.4G Hz 1.75 V, and the energy
capacity produced during operation to reach 76 W. The highest temperature value of this original model
calculated by the numerical simulative analyses is 53.381 8C, this value by experiment measuring date is
52.7 8C. Nevertheless, within the acceptable error range from the result of numerical simulation, it was
sufficient to confirm the accuracy of the heat sink module developed by this study.

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K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

3. Process modeling by Taguchi method

3.1. Performance characteristic
As for the strength and weakness of heat removal capacity of the PPF heat sink module, whether heat
capacity can be transferred to heat sink from the CPU, and afterward, to quickly use the flow field of the
forced convection caused by the electric fan through the surrounding of its heat sink, it will be judged
based in the degree that the flow field can bring away the heat capacity. And also to use the temperature
field distribution condition of its fin flake and the highest temperature value of its base as referencing
date, as well as calculate its thermal resistance value R (8C/W). Moreover, thermal resistance value R is
defined as:
R

Tmax  T0
Q

where T max is the highest temperature value of base, T 0 is the ambient temperature and Q is the
maximum heat capacity produced by the CPU. Therefore, the smaller the highest temperature value T max
(8C) or thermal resistance value R (8C/W) in the cooling phenomenon, the better the lower-the-better
performance characteristic.
3.2. Design of experiment
Based on the product of PPF heat sink module of aluminum alloy for CPU as the research objective,
the design parameters will be set by the thickness of its base, height of fin flake, gap of fin flake, number
of slot and the wind capacity of the electric fan, as listed in Table 1. The level value of its design
elements is assigned as in Table 1 according to its interior space, the modeling and volume proportion of
PPF heat sink. The indicator (*) will be the original design value.
In order to understand variable stability of design parameters on the performance characteristic, a
noise experiment must first be conducted. It purposely alters the relevant design parameters, in order to
evaluate the effect that the inner noise factors have on the performance characteristic and to make this
factor combination responsible for the noise factors [9]. As for the factor of the noise experiment, it is
based on the original design value and shown in Table 2. Table 3 presents the standard L 12 (211)
orthogonal array according to Taguchi method, to configure the testing combination for various noise
Table 1
Level chart for design parameters
Symbol

Parameter

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H

Material
Base thickness
Height of flake
Gap of flake
Slot width
Number of slot
Wind capacity
Area of Cu base

Unit
mm
mm
mm
mm
CFM
mm2

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

AL6063T5*
4
35
1.75
1.5
7
21.19*
0

AL6063T1
6*
40*
2*
3*
5*
23.7
3216*

8
45
2.25
5
3
29.8
4960

Remark (*) is original design value, total number of fin flake is 20, and thickness of every fin flake is designed to be 1 mm.

K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

1197

Table 2
Factors of the noise experiment
Symbol

Factor

Level 1

Level 2

b
c
d
e
g
h

Base thickness
Height of flake
Gap of flake
Slot width
Wind capacity
Area of Cu base

4%
5%
4%
3%
3%
5%

+4%
+5%
+4%
+3%
+3%
+5%

factors, and to base on the result of numerical simulation experiment to produce the factor response table
and graph from the noise factors. There are two main noise factors obtained from the result of analysis of
variance. The noise factor N obtained from the mixing has the tendency of decreasing and increasing the
highest temperature value T max or the thermal resistance value R.
3.3. Main experiment details
In the main experiment with eight design parameters, as listed in Table 1, the fractional factorial
design used is a standard L 18 (21  37) orthogonal array. Then it will apply the noise factor N obtained
from noise experiment on the standard L 18 (21  37) orthogonal array, as shown in Table 4. The result
from the numerical simulation experiment will be transform as the signal to noise ratio (S/N ratio) that is
the lower-the-better performance characteristic. The S/N ratio of the lower-the-better performance
characteristic can be expressed as
n
X

S=N  10 log

i1

y2i



 10 log y 2 S 2

where y i is experimental value, n is number of test, y is the average of experiment data and S is the
standard deviation.
Table 3
The L 12 orthogonal array and numerical simulation results for noise factors
No.

T max (8C)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2

1
2
1
2
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
2

1
2
1
2
2
1
2
1
2
2
1
1

1
2
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
2
1
2

1
2
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
2
2

1
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
1

53.752
53.156
53.784
52.946
53.525
53.842
52.515
53.973
54.039
53.765
52.534
53.615

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K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

Table 4
The L 18 orthogonal array and numerical simulation results with S/N ratio
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

A
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

B
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3

C
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3

D
1
2
3
1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2
2
3
1
3
1
2

1
2
3
2
3
1
1
2
3
3
1
2
3
1
2
2
3
1

1
2
3
2
3
1
3
1
2
2
3
1
1
2
3
3
1
2

G
1
2
3
3
1
2
2
3
1
2
3
1
3
1
2
1
2
3

H
1
2
3
3
1
2
3
1
2
1
2
3
2
3
1
2
3
1

N1

N2

T max (8C)

T max (8C)

52.555
50.324
46.441
48.155
51.755
51.442
46.874
51.432
49.542
53.476
48.657
51.037
50.543
50.654
48.324
50.578
51.654
49.654

52.854
50.826
47.045
48.775
52.784
51.845
47.478
50.935
50.032
54.235
49.544
51.753
51.242
50.625
48.924
51.474
52.165
50.122

S/N
 34.4370
 34.0788
 33.3945
 33.7087
 34.3654
 34.2604
 33.4746
 34.1827
 33.9424
 34.6248
 33.8221
 34.2186
 34.1333
 34.0898
 33.7372
 34.1562
 34.3050
 33.9600

3.4. Experimental results and data analysis

The factor response table and graphs of the noise factors were shown by the result of their computed
S/N ratio from Table 3 that has configured the six noise factors by the standard L 12 (211) orthogonal
array, as indicated in Fig. 2. The larger slope in Fig. 2 means that the affect of its noise factors will be
greater on the performance characteristic. Moreover, to analyze the contribution ratio by the analysis of
variance (ANOVA) from Table 5, it can be known that the noticeable variable factors are the wind
capacity of the electric fan and the gap of fin flake, its contribution ratio are 36.24% and 30.73%
respectively. The former is related to wind capacity that supplies cooling effect; the latter affects the area
of heat sink, which can obtain the noise factor N after mixing them up. It has the tendency to decrease or

-34.62

S/N Ratio

-34.60
-34.58
-34.56
-34.54
-34.52
-34.50
b1 b2

c1 c2

d1 d2

e1 e2

g1 g2

Fig. 2. Response graph of noise factor.

h1 h2

K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

1199

Table 5
Results of the analysis of variance for noise factors
Factor

Degree of freedoms ( f )

Sum of square (SS)

Mean square (V)

Variance (SSV)

b
c
d
e
g
h
Error
Total

1
1
1
1
1
1
3

0.000769
0.004107
0.005293
0.019201
0.022189
0.002701
0.007578
0.054262

0.000769
0.004107
0.005293
0.019201
0.022189
0.002701
0.002526

0.0027673
0.0166753
0.0196633
0.015156
0.054262

Contribution (q)

2.09554
7.601478
8.784376

18.48139

5.10%
30.73%
36.24%
27.93%
100.00%

increase the two level values of the highest temperature value (or thermal resistance value), which
respectively is
N 1: tendency to benefit by decreasing the highest temperature value (or thermal resistance value), its
level value is to increase wind capacity of the fan by 3%, and reduce the gap of the opening slot
by 3%.
N 2: tendency to harm by increasing the highest temperature value (or thermal resistance value), its
level value is to decrease wind capacity of the fan by 3%, and raise the gap of the opening slot by
3%.
The main experiment has applied the noise factor N on the orthogonal L 18 (21  37) in Table 4. In the
testing of the combination of the processing condition through numerical simulation experiment that has
produced the response diagram for the design factors, as shown in Fig. 3, the result shows that the
smaller the value of the highest temperature, the larger the S/N ratio will be, which shows that designing
this element can achieve the lower-the-better property of performance characteristic. It also suggests that
the optimized design value combinations are A1, B3, C3, D1, E1, F3, F3, H3. Because the variable
factors have the greater affect on the performance characteristic, its deviation ratio will be greater as
shown in Fig. 3.
-34.30

S/N Ratio

-34.20
-34.10

-34.00
-33.90

-33.80
A1A2

B1 B2 B3

C1C2 C3

D1D2D3

E1 E2E3

F1 F2 F3

Fig. 3. Response graph of design factor.

G1G2G3

H1H2H3

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K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

Table 6
Results of the analysis of variance for design parameters
Factor

Degree of freedoms ( f )

Sum of square (SS)

Mean square (V)

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Error
Total

1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
7

0.080324
0.013567
0.161649
0.048721
0.054944
0.560644
0.236745
0.375345
0.197556
1.53194

0.080324
0.006783
0.080825
0.024361
0.027472
0.280322
0.118372
0.187673
0.028222

Variance (SSV)

0.133427

2.86385

0.532422
0.208523
0.347123
0.310446
1.53194

9.932622
4.19428
6.649785
23.64054

Contribution (q)

8.71%

34.75%
13.61%
22.66%
20.26%
100.00%

In addition, from the affect that the variable factor S/N ratio has on the highest temperature value,
its contribution ratio has shown four noticeable variable factors, according to its sequence: number of
opening slot, copper base surface area, wind capacity of the fan, and the height of the fin flake.
From results of the analysis of variance in Table 6, its contribution ratios are 34.75%, 22.66%,
13.61% and 8.71% respectively. The number of its opening slot and the height of the fin flake would
affect the size of heat sink area. The wind capacity of the fan is the wind capacity needed for
cooling effect. As for copper base area, it is the effects of transferring the heat capacity caused by
heat conducting jell evenly over the base of the entire heat sink module, which can avoid
concentration of the heat that appears on the base. The result from these four variable factors has
clearly explained that the ability of the heat sink module primarily come from the cooling effect of
the wind provided by the fan, which is located on the upper corner of the module, as well as from
the surface area of heat sink module itself. In order to understand this, the experiment has utilized
optimized design value combination and the initial design value condition to compare the level of its
improvement. We would take the optimized design value combination A1, B3, C3, D1, E1, F3, F3,
H3, to test through the numerical simulation experiment; the highest temperature value of its base is
45.372 8C (or the thermal resistance value R is 0.234 8C/W), the initial design conditions are A1,
B2, C2, D2, E2, F2, G1, H2; the highest temperature value has decreased to 8.009 8C and about
15.01% improvement.

4. Conclusion
This study presents an effective method for predicting and optimizing the cooling performance of
Parallel-Plain Fin (PPF) heat sink module based on the Taguchi method. The entire surface of the
module and the increase of fans wind capacity can be most beneficial to the module to lower the highest
temperature value T max (8C) or thermal resistance value R (8C/W). The result from the analyses of the
noise factors has shown that the two noticeable variable factors are the wind capacity of the electric fan
and the gap of fin flake. By using Taguchi method for design of experiment (DOE) and the analysis of
variance (ANOVA), four noticeable variable factors will be obtained: number of opening slot, copper
base surface area, wind capacity of the fan, and the height of the fin flake respectively. From the
numerical simulative analyses, the optimum design parameters to obtain the lowest value of the highest

K.-T. Chiang / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 32 (2005) 11931201

1201

temperature (or thermal resistance) are found, and the highest temperature value has decreased to 8.009
8C and about 15.01% improvement.

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