Experimental Study of Liquid Flow and Heat Transfer in Microchannels With In-Line Array of Cubes

Abstract

De-ionized (DI) water flow in microchannels with periodically mounted in-line array of cubes is investigated experimentally. The array of 505 micron cubes are fabricated within silicon channels to generate so-called self-sustained oscillating flow for the purpose of improving the heating wall temperature distribution, enhancing the cooling capacity and reducing the pumping power. An electrical heater is attached on the top of the test channel to simulate the real cooling situation. With periodically mounted in-line array of cubes, more heat is transferred through the cubes to the liquid, and the liquid boundary development is interrupted periodically by the cube array, resulting in heat transfer enhancement. The strong fluid mixing between the cubes will cause more uniform distribution of the heating wall temperature and thus reduce the wall thermal stresses resulted from the temperature rise along the flow direction. Within a certain range of Reynolds number, self-sustained oscillating flow is activated and expected to reduce the pressure difference in the channels. Experimental data are presented and discussed to evaluate the performance of the cube arrays periodically mounted in microchannels. This paper was also originally published as part of the Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems.