Heat transfer performance of a novel double-layer mini-channel heat sink

Abstract

High pressure drop and significant non-uniformity in temperature distribution along the streamwise direction are still challenges to the design of mini-channel heat sink. High density mini-channel arrays with high liquid-wall contact area are usually pursued in a conventional single-layer design of heat sink, which also inevitably brings high pressure drop. A novel double-layer structured heat sink is proposed in this paper. Four heat sinks with various designs in mini-channel density and flow direction were fabricated and studied experimentally on the heat transfer performance. The single factor of heat load does not show obvious effect on the overall thermal resistance of the heat sinks. On the other hand, slight decrease in thermal resistance was found with the increase in heat load at high flow rates. Moreover, a computational fluid dynamics modeling work was conducted. The results indicate that the parallel cross-flow field regulated by the double-layer structure enhances the heat exchange in both horizontal and vertical directions and consequently gives an uniform temperature distribution and high heat transfer efficiency.