Case Study: DSM (Royal DSM) achieves accurate thermal prediction and optimized LED heat-sink designs with Altair's AcuSolve

Thermal analysis of LED lamps using AcuSolve

DSM Engineering Plastics, part of DSM, faced the challenge of replacing aluminum heat sinks in LED lighting with a thermally conductive polymer while accurately predicting thermal performance. The company needed to model natural convection and radiative heat transfer to evaluate polymer heat sinks and avoid design errors (e.g., fins too closely spaced). To address this, DSM used Altair’s AcuSolve from the HyperWorks CAE Suite as part of its CAE toolkit.

DSM implemented Altair’s AcuSolve to couple conduction, natural convection and radiation (using hemicube view-factor calculations) and validated the simulations against measurements—predicted temperatures (TLED ≈ 69.9 °C, TInterface ≈ 62 °C, TFin ≈ 55 °C) matched test data and showed radiation comprised roughly one-third of total heat loss. Using Altair’s solution allowed DSM to optimize heat-sink geometry, move toward virtual prototyping with fewer physical prototypes, shorten development cycles and reduce development costs while improving the use of its high-performance plastics.

DSM

Adnan Hasanovic

Research Scientist/Design Engineer