The heat transfer characteristics of liquid cooling heatsink containing microchannels

Abstract

This paper numerically and experimentally investigates the heat transfer performance and characteristics of liquid cooling heatsink containing microchannels. The effects of channel geometry and pressure drop between the entrance and exit of heatsink on the heat transfer performance are studied. The geometrical parameters include aspect ratio and cross-sectional porosity of the channels. The height of the microchannels is considered constant. The aspect ratio is set from 1.67 to 14.29 and the porosity is from 25% to 85%. The imposed pressure drop ranges between 490 and 2940 Pa. It is found that the aspect ratio corresponding to the lowest effective thermal resistance is changed with respect to the pressure drop. It is also noticed that the value of effective thermal resistance is almost a constant for cross-sectional porosity in the range of 53%–75%. The effective thermal resistance is increased when cross-sectional porosity is deviated from this range. In addition, the increasing of pressure drop enhances heat transfer performance for channels of high aspect ratio more than those of low aspect ratio.