Mechanical Design
Electronic Fin Design
I compared rectangular and triangular cooling fins with a transient thermal model in Python. In the simulated conditions, a triangular fin at 20% coverage reached a peak temperature of 46.3 °C.
Mechanical Design · BYU–Idaho Coursework
Model overview
This coursework study compares fin geometries using a lumped-capacitance model. The model treats each fin as having a uniform temperature; the study uses a Biot number below 0.1 to support that approximation.
Design question
Which geometry and coverage level meets the study’s temperature target while reducing material use?
Simulation approach
I implemented the transient energy balance in Python for heating and passive cooling. I compared rectangular and triangular geometries at different coverage levels, considering predicted temperature, mass, and thermal response.
Simulated result
The selected triangular fin at 20% coverage reached a predicted peak of 46.3 °C, below the study’s 50 °C target. Higher-coverage options exceeded that target in the modeled conditions. This is a simulation result, not a measured hardware temperature; its usefulness depends on the heat input, convection assumptions, and geometry used in the model.
Thermal AnalysisFin DesignPythonTransient Modeling