The phenomenon of pressure drop and the heat transfer for single-phase microelectronic pin fin heat sinks has been analyzed numerically for many varying pin fin shapes. The present study is based on cooling the pin fins by forced air convection using ANSYS Fluent software. The primary intents of this study focus on maximum heat transfer and minimum flow resistance in pin fins. The aerodynamic efficiency of fins with varying shapes is analyzed to obtain the best-optimized shape for pin fins of heat sinks. The staggered rounded leading edges pin fin has a better quality factor (QF) with low pumping power and the pressure drop for the inlet flow velocities are higher than 4 m/s. Conic sections of pin fins with staggered configurations have been observed to provide better aerodynamic efficiency for Reynolds number ranging 450–900 whereas rounded leading edge of pin fin of heat sinks provides better aerodynamics efficiency for Reynolds numbers above 900.

Finite volume method for solving the Navier stokes equation is employed for studying 2D incompressible flow around an array of three cylinders placed in a staggered arrangement at two Reynolds numbers 100 and 200. Numerical simulations have been performed for the configurations having three cylinders of equal diameter for varying the longitudinal and transverse gaps. The transverse gap is varied in the first case (T = 0.75D, 1.5D, and 3D) to study the effects on the wake of the cylinders. The second analysis has been performed for the configurations having three cylinders of unequal diameters (D = 0.5D and 1.5D) by varying the diameter of the cylinders in staggered arrangement. The coefficient of forces has been analyzed for this configuration and compared with the results of the simulation of isolated cylinder. The authors have tried to understand the flow behavior in the simulation from the vorticity contours and the streamlines. The complex flow pattern due to mutual interaction between the wakes of the cylinders has been studied based on the varying transverse and the longitudinal distance.