A novel approach to manage temperature non-uniformity in minichannel heat sink by using intentional flow maldistribution

Abstract

Flow maldistribution is an uncalled phenomenon in water-cooled heat sink and accountable for the depreciation in thermal performance of the same. However, this study is proposed to manage temperature non-uniformity at the base of the mini-channel heat sink by taking advantage of flow maldistribution under non-uniform heating. Four different types of flow arrangements such as I-Type, Z-Type, C-Type and N-Type and five different types of heating arrangements such as uniform, center streamline, left streamline, right streamline and dual streamline heating are considered. A comprehensible numerical study has been performed using ANSYS-Fluent to explicate the combined effect of different flow arrangements and different heating arrangements on the thermal performance of the heat sink. The results show that for uniform heating, I-Type flow arrangement has better thermal performance with the lowest value of thermal resistance. For non-uniform heating, better thermal performance can be achieved for cases such as center streamline heating, right streamline heating, left streamline heating and dual streamline heating with I-Type, Z-Type, C-Type, and N-Type flow arrangements respectively. Hence, a suitable flow arrangement should be considered for a given heating arrangement to acquire the optimal thermal performance of the heat sink.