Heat transfer and flow characteristics in nanochannels with complex surface topological morphology

Abstract

With the improvement of the integration of micro/nano electronic devices, the thermal management problem is widely concerned. The roughness of solid-liquid interface in the nanochannel can significantly affect the heat transfer and flow process. To restore the rough surface topological morphology characteristics, the superimposed sine function is proposed to establish the rugged surface structure. Molecular dynamics simulation method is used for this numerical simulation. The results show that as the number of superimposed sine functions increases, the temperature field develops faster, temperature slip length decreases, the Nusselt number increases, and the heat transfer process is improved. Still, the velocity slip length decreases, the fluid flow process is relatively inhibited. Microscopically, the heat transfer process at the solid-liquid interface is intensified because of the expansion of the low potential energy region and the high mass density region, the solid-liquid interaction energy of optimum heat transfer surface reaches –4448 eV. The increase in the solid-liquid interaction energy also proves the enhancement of heat transfer at the solid-liquid interface. This investigation has a favorable impact on the understanding of convective heat transfer in nanochannels with actual surface topological morphology, providing theoretical guidance for the efficient cooling of electronic devices, such as vapor chambers, heat sinks and other high heat flux electronic devices.