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Performance evaluation and optimization of flattened microchannel heat sinks for the electronic cooling application

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Abstract

The present study introduces a microchannel heat sink (MCHS) with a new geometry entitled as flattened, which is used to dissipate heat flux form high heat flux generation devices and evaluates its hydrothermal performance. Three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer problem with the assumptions of laminar and steady-state fluid flow has been solved numerically, based on finite volume method. Silicon and pure water with temperature-independent thermophysical properties form the solid part of the heat sink and the coolant, respectively. The performance of three geometric designs of flattened cross-sectional MCHS including a simple single-layer heat sink (Design-A), a heat sink with an adjustable horizontal separation plate (Design-B), and a double-layer MCHS with truncated upper channels (Design-C), is evaluated based on the changes of six effective parameters in the problem including the number of microchannels (N), wall thickness (Ww), thickness of the separation plate (δ), vertical position of the separation plate (H1), velocity ratio (VR), and the length ratio (LR), and under the thermal and hydrodynamic conditions of a uniform heat flux and four different pumping powers. Creating the lowest thermal resistance and the most uniform temperature distribution are the criteria for selecting the optimal designs. The results show that Design-C with the specifications of N = 72, Ww = 56 µm, δ = 25 µm, H1 = 300 µm, VR = 0.7, and LR = 0.7 has the best performance among the all cases by creating the thermal resistance of 0.1333 kW−1, which also indicates a \(7.9\%\) performance improvement over similar studies.

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Abbreviations

A base :

Bottom face area affected by heat flux (\(\upmu {\text{m}}^{2}\))

A C :

Cross-sectional area of microchannels (\(\upmu {\text{m}}^{2}\))

C P :

Specific heat capacity (\({\text{J}}\;{\text{kg}}^{ - 1} \;{\text{K}}^{ - 1}\))

H :

Height of the heat sink (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

H 1 :

Height for the lower microchannels (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

H 2 :

Height for the upper microchannels (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

H C :

Total height of the microchannels (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

k :

Thermal conductivity coefficient (\({\text{W}}\;{\text{m}}^{ - 1} \;{\text{K}}^{ - 1}\))

L :

Length of the heat sink (mm)

L 2 :

Length of the top row of microchannels (mm)

L R :

Length ratio (–)

n :

Normal direction to the boundary

N :

Number of microchannels (–)

P :

Static pressure (kPa)

ΔP :

Pressure drop (kPa)

Po:

Poiseuille number (–)

\(q_{{\text{w}}}^{{\prime \prime }}\) :

Heat flux applied to bottom face of the heat sink (\({\text{W}}\;{\text{cm}}^{ - 2}\))

R th :

Thermal resistance (\({\text{kW}}^{ - 1}\))

T :

Temperature (K or °C)

T in :

Temperature of inlet flow (K or °C)

T max :

Maximum temperature (K or °C)

T min :

Minimum temperature (K or °C)

V :

Fluid velocity (\({\text{ms}}^{ - 1}\))

V 1, V 2 :

Velocity in lower and upper channels (\({\text{ms}}^{ - 1}\))

V ave :

Average velocity (\({\text{ms}}^{ - 1}\))

V R :

Velocity ratio (–)

W :

Width of the heat sink (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

W C :

Width of the microchannels (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

W d :

Width of the computational domain (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

W w :

Wall thickness (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

u, v, w :

Velocity components in x, y, z directions (\({\text{ms}}^{ - 1}\))

x, y, z :

Cartesian coordinates

δ :

Thickness of the separation plate (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

δ 1 :

Thickness of the bottom wafer of heat sink (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

δ 2 :

Thickness of the top wafer of heat sink (\(\upmu {\text{m}}\))

µ :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

ρ :

Density (\({\text{kg}}\;{\text{m}}^{ - 3}\))

Ω:

Pumping power (W

1, 2:

Lower channel and upper channel

f:

Fluid

in:

Inlet

min, max:

Minimum and maximum

s:

Solid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, 158754413, Iran

    S. M. Ayatollahi, A. Ahmadpour & M. R. Hajmohammadi

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  1. S. M. Ayatollahi
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  2. A. Ahmadpour
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  3. M. R. Hajmohammadi
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Correspondence to M. R. Hajmohammadi.

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Ayatollahi, S.M., Ahmadpour, A. & Hajmohammadi, M.R. Performance evaluation and optimization of flattened microchannel heat sinks for the electronic cooling application. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 3267–3281 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-021-10589-6

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