Numerical investigation on flow and heat transfer characteristics in honeycomb-like microchannel heat sink encapsulated with phase change material

Abstract

The present study proposes a novel model to numerically investigate the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a honeycomb-like microchannel heat sink (MCHS) encapsulated with phase change material (PCM). Compared with a single MCHS, the hybrid MCHS combines the advantages of microchannels in terms of micro efficiency with the isothermal phase change effect of PCM. The finite volume method is used to discretize the three-dimensional flow and heat transfer processes within the hybrid MCHS. Special attentions are paid to the effects of PCM, geometric parameters and local hot spots on the temperature uniformity and flow heat transfer performance. The results show that the honeycomb inflow structure design and the thermal management characteristics of PCM phase change cooling exhibit better temperature uniformity and cooling performance. The overall performance of the heat sink is best at microchannel height of 0.09 mm and inlet number of 5 under the range of parameters studied. Adjusting the channel height from 0.06 mm to 0.09 mm at a volume flow rate of 10 mL∙min−1 can reduce the thermal resistance by 51 % and the pumping power by nearly 20 %. Increasing the number of microchannel inlets results in better heat transfer performance, but this improvement comes at the expense of larger pressure drop. When a local hotspot occurs, the hybrid MCHS can reduce the temperature peak by 2–5 K, achieving a smoother temperature distribution.