About

This project involved modeling and simulating a desktop computer with the novel (at the time) pass-through heatsink found on Nvidia’s 3000 series GPUs, and assessing the accuracy of our models by comparing the results with real-world data. My responsibilities in this group project were modeling the CPU heatsink and simulating the assembly in Siemens NX.

The figures above depict the CPU heatsink modeled for this project. The CPU heatsink and fan are based on the Noctua NH-L9x65 which cooled the Intel Core i7 4790K in the simulation.

After setting up thermal load, convection, and coupling parameters, a steady state thermal simulation was run to determine the temperature distribution in both the CPU heatsink and motherboard assembly. Forced air convection parameters were applied to fin surfaces defined by the air velocity and characteristic length of the fins; air velocity was calculated from the fan’s CFM specification and fan diameter.

While the thermal distribution and temperatures for the CPU heatsink was accurate, the maximum simulated temperature for the GPU far exceeded the temperature a RTX 3080 would reach under maximum load. This was most likely due to modeling the interfaces between the die, block, and fins inaccurately. In conclusion, a more detailed model would be needed to properly simulate how the GPU performs under load.