Heat sink simulation before you commit to tooling
Find out whether a heat sink keeps your components inside their temperature limits, and which fin, base and airflow changes would buy more margin, while the design can still change cheaply.
Heat sinks are often chosen from a datasheet thermal resistance measured in open air, at conditions your product will never see. Inside an enclosure the airflow is restricted, neighbouring components add heat and the ambient temperature is higher. A heat sink that looks generous on paper can run hot in service.
More about heat sink simulation
Heat sink simulation models the heat sink, the components, the board, the enclosure and the surrounding air together, using conjugate heat transfer. The temperatures it predicts are the ones that matter in your product, and it shows the air velocities between the fins and the pressure drop across them, which decides whether a fan can deliver the flow you are counting on.
Several fin counts, base thicknesses, materials and fan or vent arrangements can be compared side by side on the same model. The chosen design then goes straight into detailed design and drawings with the same team, as a production-ready model your supplier can quote from.
Typical products: power electronics, LED luminaires, motor drives, battery management systems, telecoms equipment and industrial control enclosures.
What a heat sink study tells you
Will the components stay within their limits?
Predicted case and junction temperatures at your worst-case ambient and power, set against the limits in each component’s datasheet.
Is natural convection enough?
Whether a passive heat sink can carry the load, or whether you need a fan, more fin area or a heat pipe to spread it.
Which fin geometry suits this enclosure?
Fin count, thickness, height and spacing compared directly, because the best spacing in open air is rarely the best inside a box.
Can the fan deliver the flow?
Pressure drop across the fin stack set against the fan curve, so the operating point is known rather than assumed.
Where is the heat actually going?
How much leaves through the heat sink, the board, the enclosure walls and the vents, so you know which path is worth improving.
What we model
Natural convection
Buoyancy-driven flow around passive heat sinks, including the effect of orientation and nearby enclosure walls.
Forced convection
Fan and duct-driven airflow, with fan curves, filters, grilles and vents represented in the model.
Conjugate heat transfer
Conduction through the base, fins, thermal interface material and circuit board, solved together with the airflow.
Radiation
Surface-to-surface radiation where it matters, typically in sealed or passively cooled enclosures.
Heat pipes and vapour chambers
Represented as high-conductivity paths to show how far they spread a concentrated load across the base.
Materials and finishes
Aluminium alloys, copper and surface emissivity changes such as anodising, compared on temperature and weight.
Before you start
What to send us
- CAD of the heat sink, components and enclosure (STEP or native)
- Power dissipation per component, at normal and worst-case load
- Maximum ambient temperature, and altitude if it matters
- Fan make and model or its fan curve, plus any filters or grilles
- Temperature limits for the critical components
- Mounting orientation and any space, weight or cost constraints
Can you simulate the heat sink inside its enclosure?
Yes, and that is usually where the useful answers are. Restricted airflow, recirculation and heat from nearby components can change heat sink performance considerably.
Do we need a fan curve?
For forced convection, yes, or the fan’s make and model so we can find one. Without it, the airflow through the fins is a guess.
Can you compare extruded, skived and die-cast designs?
Yes. Each process limits fin thickness, spacing and height in different ways, so we compare designs that your chosen process can actually make.
How are heat pipes modelled?
Usually as solids with a high effective thermal conductivity. That shows how well they spread heat without modelling the two-phase flow inside the pipe.
Send us your heat sink
