The University of Utah’s undergraduate student team has emerged victorious in the 2023 IEEE/EPS ASME K-16 Student Heat Sink Design Challenge. This annual competition focuses on designing an aluminum natural convection heat sink that maximizes performance while operating at low temperatures and minimal cost.
Using SOLIDWORKS simulation, the team brainstormed, tested, and iterated on designs to predict the Figure Of Merit (FOM). They settled on the X Tent design, which optimized disruption of the convective boundary layer and cold ambient air supply. The team then employed ANSYS Fluent for more rigorous testing in the thermofluid domain, defining a mesh, setting up materials and boundary conditions, and gathering final data. This helped them remove unnecessary mass and improve natural convection through extended surfaces.
The team’s success led them to be selected as semi-finalists in the ASME K 16 heatsink contest. After GE Additive 3D printed their heatsink designs, experimental tests were conducted by the University of Southern Denmark to measure the FOM. Based on the results and the design process, the Utah team was chosen as finalists and competed against teams from Texas A&M and TU Berlin at the ITherm conference. Ultimately, the University of Utah team emerged as the winners, impressing the judges with their experimentally determined FOM, effective use of additive manufacturing, and presentation skills.
This victory marks the second time that an undergraduate team from the University of Utah Mechanical Engineering Department has won the student heat sink design competition, with their first win occurring in 2020. The team’s achievement demonstrates their exceptional skills and dedication in the field of mechanical engineering.
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