Thermal capacitance/Heat Transfer

[vettett15]

Guys,

Maybe someone can help, as I am having a brain fart here trying to think of how this all works. Say for instance I have an electrical part that dissipates 10 W of power and I am removing this power through the use of a thermal strap to a heatsink.



I think the problem I am having is I don't see how specific heat plays into heat transfer since the specific heat can tell you for a given energy input this is how hot your part will get. Doesn't thermal transfer depend on the temperature of the two parts. Does specific heat not matter at steady state? Would an aluminum and copper part reach the same temperature eventually given the same energy?

Dazed and confused,
Pete

 

[sophiecentaur]

You are right. The SHC doesn't count in the long term - just the conductivity / emissivity etc.. The effect of transient bursts of high device dissipation could be different for different heat sink materials and shapes, though.