Experimental and numerical study on the heat transfer and flow characteristics of micro-gap chip with longitudinal vortex generator array

Abstract

The longitudinal vortex generators (LVGs) are introduced in the 3D stacked chip micro gaps to enhance heat transfer. Experimental and numerical tests on the performance of 3D stacked chip with and without LVGs in the gap are conducted, and the flow and heat transfer performance at various mass flow rate and heating power as well as LVG spacing is investigated. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the LVGs array can effectively improve the cooling performance of the chip with micro gap. Under the experimental condition of q = 41 W/cm2 and Qv = 112 ml/min, the LVGs array can reduce the wall temperature by 14.49 °C compared with smooth channel. Reducing the spacing of the longitudinal vortex array can improve the cooling performance of the micro gap chip since the interaction between the vortexes generated by the LVGs in the pair is enhanced, which also causes the increase of pressure drop. The comprehensive heat transfer performance comparison considering the pump work consumption indicates that the LVGs enhanced chip is more applicable at higher heating power, and chips with smaller spacing are more applicable for conditions with lower flow rate of cooling water.