An Optimization of Grooves Structure for Thermal Performance Enhancement in Microchannel Heat Sink

Abstract

In the current work, the thermal performance of a grooved microchannel heat sink is evaluated at different offset positions inside the channel. For this purpose, the Eulerian–Eulerian approach-based mathematical model is developed and is numerically solved using the finite volume approach. Water is the base fluid to which alumina nanoparticles were added to enhance heat transfer. The effect of the Reynolds number (100–1,000), particle diameter (10–50 nm), the number of grooves (10–80), offset between the grooves (0–1), and particle volume fraction (0–5%) on the dimensionless pressure drop, Nusselt number, and coefficient of performance are investigated, and their impact on the microchannel’s thermal characteristics is quantified. Most importantly, the microchannels with symmetric (Offset = 0) and asymmetric grooves (Offset 0) were compared, and it was found that offsetting the grooves has an insignificant effect on the microchannel performance. Furthermore, an empirical correlation is proposed to evaluate the coefficient of performance of both symmetric and asymmetric microchannels as a function of the output variables.