A DOS-enhanced numerical simulation of heat transfer and fluid flow through an array of offset fins with conjugate heating in the bounding solid

The method of Design of Simulation (DOS) was used to guide and enhance a numerical simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer through offset-fin arrays which form the interior geometry of a cold plate. The basic problem involved 12 independent parameters. This prohibitive parametric burden was lessened by the creative use of nondimensionalization that was brought to fruition by a special transformation of the boundary conditions. Subsequent to the reduction of the number of parameters, the DOS method was employed to limit the number of simulation runs while maintaining an accurate representation of the parameter space. The DOS method also provided excellent correlations of both the dimensionless heat transfer and pressure drop results. The results were evaluated with respect to the Colburn Analogy for heat and momentum transfer. It was found that the offseting of the fins created a larger increase in the friction factor than that which was realized for the dimensionless heat transfer coefficient.