Online HeatSinkCalculator Aids Luminaire Design

Introducing the HeatSink Calculator, an online calculator software used to design, analyze and optimize heat sinks in various heat dissipation conditions for LED lamps.

HeatSinkCalculator layout

This simple yet powerful calculator software allows the rapid design and analysis of heat sinks by green hands and experts in thermal analysis. The key features of the calculator are:

1)Simulation of the heat sink undergoing natural convection with the heat sink base in both the horizontal and vertical positions

2)Forced convection analysis with the input of a fixed volumetric flow rate, constant velocity or fan curve data points

3)Variable heat sink cooling to account for radiation

4)Adjustable heat source size

5)Dimensional optimization to automatically find the lowest temperature heat sink design

HeatSinkCalculator results output.

CFD analysis is an excellent tool that can be used to accurately analyze heat sinks in various cooling conditions. However its weak point is that it can be very time consuming especially if you are analyzing several design options or trying to figure out which design best meets your thermal requirement. The HeatSinkCalculator allows the user to set up and analyze a heat sink within minutes. Changes can be made to the design parameters quickly and the analysis re-run in seconds unlike CFD analysis that may take several minutes or even hours to make one analysis.

The optimization feature allows the user to find the best heat sink design that minimizes the heat sink thermal resistance by varying the number of fins, base thickness and fin thickness.