Experimental Investigation of the Effect of the Metal Foam Material on CPU Cooling

Abstract

One of the most important component of computers is processors (CPU). Because of the reasons like running too many programs simultaneously and playing games may cause the processor to overheat. This situation may cause unwanted computer malfunction. The CPU capacity and heat quantities increase with increasing the CPU speed and its performance. In order to run the system effectively, this heat must be removed and the critical surface temperature of the CPU must be kept below approximately 85 °C. In this present study, aluminum open cell metal foam (Al-6101) heat sink having pore density of 10 and 40 PPI (pore per inch) was used instead of the conventional plate type aluminum heat sink. 10 and 40 PPI aluminum metal foam materials are compared with each other and the results are presented in graphics at different fan speeds (1140, 1742, 2439, 2944, 3308 and 4187 rpm). According to the results, in %0-10 CPU usage (standby), lower surface temperatures were reached while using 10 PPI aluminum metal foam material. However, in %100 CPU usage, lower surface temperatures were reached while using 40 PPI aluminum metal foam material.