Extremely high heat flux dissipation and hotspots removal with nature-inspired single-phase microchannel heat sink designs

Abstract

A novel pyramid thermal dissipation unity with conduction–convection coupling thermal dissipation and nature-inspired hotspot removal channel heat sinks is proposed to degrade and dissipate ultra-high heat flux with the order of 103 W cm−2 by using single-phase coolant. A 3D conjugate thermal and flow numerical model is used to validate the feasibility of the proposed ultra-high heat flux dissipation method. The pyramid thermal dissipation unit consists of a spiral tube embedded with etched lotus leaf vein or snowflake-shaped channels. This configuration enables the dissipation of heat fluxes ranging from 1000 to 1500 W cm−2 while maintaining safe operating temperatures for the chip using a single-phase coolant. By utilizing high thermal conductivity materials, the proposed dissipation unit achieves chip working temperatures of 89.89 °C for 1500 W cm−2 and 66.58 °C for 1000 W cm−2. Furthermore, the new design allows for a reduction in the minimum required thermal conductivity for materials to 700 W m−1 K−1 at a pump power of 7.05 W, while still operating within the chip's safe temperature limit of ≤ 120 °C. This expanded range of thermal conductivity values provides more options for selecting suitable materials to fabricate the dissipation unit.