Heat dissipation performance of solid-state drives under convective cooling: analyzing the impact of heat sink fin spacing

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the influence of heat sink fin spacing on the thermal management performance of solid-state drives (SSDs) under natural convection cooling. Design/methodology/approach – A three-dimensional numerical model based on the finite volume method (FVM) was developed to analyze heat dissipation in the SSD. Parametric studies examined the effects of varying fin spacings (2.4–7.2 mm) on key metrics, including temperature distribution, average surface heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and thermal resistance. Experimental validation was performed using a heat transfer test following Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC’s) JESD51-4A Standard to ensure reliability. Findings – Increasing fin spacing improved convective heat transfer, with the highest surface heat transfer coefficient (3.29 W/m²K) and Nusselt number (13.56) recorded at 7.2 mm fin spacing. This represented an increase of 37% and 42.5%, respectively, compared to 2.4 mm spacing. However, wider spacing increased thermal resistance, reaching 37.91 K/W at 7.2 mm, highlighting a trade-off between convective enhancement and heat dissipation efficiency. Experimental validation confirmed the accuracy of the numerical model, with a maximum deviation of 4.59%. Practical implications – The findings offer guidelines for optimizing heat sink designs in electronic cooling applications, balancing airflow improvements with thermal resistance minimization. Originality/value – This study systematically analyzes the impact of fin-to-fin spacing on SSD thermal performance, addressing a critical gap in heat sink optimization. Unlike previous works that broadly address electronics cooling or focus on forced convection, this research uniquely targets SSDs operating under natural convection and evaluates the effect of fin spacing on both thermal and convective metrics. By integrating detailed 3D numerical modeling and experimental validation, it offers novel insights into optimizing passive cooling in high-power data storage devices.