INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH Int. J. Energy Res. 2007; 31:455–471 Published online 18 October 2006 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/er.1258 Optimization of a finned heat sink array based on thermoeconomic analysis S. Z. Shuja 1,z , S. M. Zubair 1, * ,y and S. Z. Shazli 2,} 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mineral, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Computer Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mineral, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia SUMMARY The design and specification of heat sinks for electronic systems is not easily accomplished through the use of standard thermal design and analysis tools since geometric and boundary conditions are not typically known in advance. A second-law based thermoeconomic optimization procedure is presented for a finned heat sink array. This involves including costs associated with material, and irreversible losses due to heat transfer and pressure drop. The influence of important physical, geometrical and unit cost parameters on the overall finned array are optimized for some typical operating conditions that are representative of electronic cooling applications. The optimized cost results are presented in terms of Re D ; Re L ; l P =l H ; and q for a finned system in a graphical form. In addition the methodology of obtaining optimum parameters for a finned heat sink system which will result in minimum operating cost is demonstrated. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: thermoeconomic; optimization; heat sink 1. INTRODUCTION It is well known that selecting an appropriate heat sink for any particular system is dependent on many parameters. For example, a list of such parameters would include (Fast, 2005): thermal load; placement, number and size of heat generating components; ambient temperature; available airflow; altitude; heat sink geometry (fin thickness, fin density, fin height, fin shape, base plate thickness); type of material; weight; and cost. In addition, optimization of the heat *Correspondence to: S. M. Zubair, Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mineral, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. y E-mail: smzubair@kfupm.edu.sa z E-mail: shuja@kfupm.edu.sa } E-mail: shazli@kfupm.edu.sa Contract/grant sponsor: King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals; contract/grant number: SAB-2004/13 Received 8 December 2005 Revised 1 August 2006 Accepted 1 August 2006 Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.