Numerical Investigation of the Hydrothermal Characteristics of Water Flow in Compound Microchannel Heat Sinks

Abstract

In the present work, three-dimensional numerical simulations of laminar forced convection flow of water in unique compound microchannel heat sinks (MCHSs) were investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. The newly proposed MCHS is made up of circular microchannels slotted from the top within a trapezoidal shape, and its cooling effectiveness was compared to that of traditional rectangular MCHS. Each MCHS under consideration has the same hydraulic diameter and heat transfer surface area. Water volumetric flow rates (Qin) with a wide range of values are used, ranging from 40 to 90 ml/min, with the fluid inlet temperature set to 20 oC. A constant heat flux boundary condition of 100 W/cm2 is supplied on the MCHS bottom. The results demonstrated that the inclusion of reentrant trapezoidal shapes can disrupt both hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers, as well as accelerate fluid flow and mixing in the main flow, resulting in a significant heat transfer enhancement. Furthermore, at Qin=90 ml/min, the average Nusselt number (Nuavg) of compound MCHS increased by 2.16%, while total pressure drop and total thermal resistance decreased by 1.73% and 1.57%, respectively, when compared to the straight rectangular counterpart.