Abstract
In the present study, the effects of the heat spreader thickness and the heat sink size on the thermal performance of a cooling device for a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) module were numerically investigated. Numerical simulation was conducted by using the simulation tool ICEPAK, commercial software based on the finite volume method. Numerical results were validated by comparing the existing experimental data. The thermal performance of a cooling device, which consisted of a heat spreader and a natural convective heat sink, was evaluated with varying the heat spreader thickness and the heat sink size. The geometric configuration of the natural convective heat sink, such as the fin height, the fin spacing, and the fin thickness, was optimized by using the existing correlation. The numerical results showed that the thermal performance of the cooling device increased as the heat spreader thickness or the heat sink size increased. Also, it was found that the spreading thermal resistance plays an important role in the thermal performance of the cooling device which has the localized heat source.
