Pin Fin Arrays Research Articles

Thermal-hydraulic investigation on micro heat sinks with ribbed pin-fin arrays and single heating input: parametrical study

Thermal-hydraulic investigation on micro heat sinks with ribbed pin-fin arrays and single heating input: parametrical study

Experimental research on flow boiling characteristics of micro pin-fin arrays with different hydrophobic coatings

Experimental investigations have been conducted on flow and thermal performance of coolant flow boiling in diamond micro arrays with different contact angles (90°, 120° and 150°). Working fluid circulating under mass flow rates in the scope of 21.54–962.75 kg/(m2·s). Images captured by high-speed camera with 500fps showed the coolant flow pattern in these micro pin-fin arrays. Comparative experiments of thermal performance of four micro pin-fins were performed at inlet temperature of 30 °C. The flow patterns of flow boiling could be divided into four states: film boiling state, transition state, nucleate boiling state and single-phase state. The pressure drop of hydrophobic surface is 90% lower than that of bare copper surface as the mass flow rate is 215 kg/(m2·s) The flow resistance is reduced after being covered with hydrophobic coatings. With the increase of contact angles, the micro arrays' thermal characteristics becomes deteriorated rapidly. The flow and thermal performance of diamond micro arrays is better than other three shapes, as the structure of diamond pin-fins plays a significant role in separation and migration of vapor film and bubbles. When the mass flow rate reaches 448 kg/(m2·s), the heat transfer coefficient of diamond is 76% higher than that of triangle.

Aerothermal performance improvement by array of pin-fins with spiral wings

An innovative array of pin-fins with spiral wings was proposed as a new heat transfer augmentation device. The aerothermal characteristics were correlatively analyzed based on the Nusselt number measurements and the concomitant augmentations in friction factors and the turbulent flow field simulated by the commercial code at the Reynolds numbers of 5500, 7500, 10,000, 15,000, and 20,000. The pair of spiral wings on each cylindrical pin between two neighboring pins in a pin-row swirled the flows to promote the core-to-wall fluid mixings. The endwall average Nusselt numbers and fiction factors were raised to 5.4–5.03 and 107.6–114.93 times of the plain tube references when 5500 ≤ Re ≤ 20,000. Compared with the ducted flows with the various pin fin geometries, the array of pins with the spiral wings achieved the higher degree of heat transfer elevations with the noticeable pressure drop augmentations. The empirical correlations that calculated the endwall-average Nusselt number and Fanning friction factor of the channel with the spirally finned pin array were generated.

Experimental and Numerical Study of Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer in a Wedge-shaped Channel with Guiding Pin Fins for Turbine Blade Trailing Edge Cooling

Gas turbine blades employ wedge-shaped channels for the trailing edge internal cooling. Detailed experimental and numerical analyses have been done on the heat transfer and turbulent flow structures in a wedge-shaped channel with arrays of streamlined pin fins for the Reynolds number range from 20,000 to 80,000. The study examines two different configurations of the streamlined guiding pin fins in the wedge-shaped channels, which show the potential of flow guiding and heat transfer improvement for the turbine blade trailing edge internal cooling. The experiments indicate that the streamlined shape of the guiding pin fins causes significantly reduced pressure losses compared to the baseline circular pin fin arrays. Depending on two different configurations the guiding pin fin arrays can achieve pressure loss reduction by up to about 37.3% and 8.7%, respectively, while obtaining appreciably higher average heat transfer on the bottom wall by up to about 8.8% and 12.0%, respectively, compared to the baseline circular pin fin arrays. Besides, the conjugate numerical simulations obtain the total Nusselt numbers of the different pin fin array configurations. Depending on two different configurations the guiding pin fin arrays increase the total Nusselt numbers by up to 11.5% and 13.8%, respectively, compared to the baseline circular pin fin arrays. Additionally, the heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss reduction present more significant promotions for the guiding pin fin arrays as the Reynolds number increases. Also, the numerical simulations reveal the detailed flow structures in the wedge-shaped channels with different pin fin configurations and demonstrate the flow guiding mechanism of the guiding pin fin arrays. Due to the flow optimizations by the guiding pin fin arrays in the wedge-shaped channels, the heat transfer and flow distribution uniformities are improved.

Experimental investigation of the twist angle effects on thermo-hydraulic performance of a square and hexagonal pin fin array in forced convection

This research deals with an experimental investigation to manage the thermo-hydraulic performance of the heat sink with pin fin array under forced convection at various design factors and operating conditions. Experimentation tests were performed on two pin fin section shapes of a square and hexagonal with four various twist angles (0, 30, 60, and 90o) at constant heat flux with air Reynolds number (Re) ranging from 3182 to 9971. The enhancement in Nusselt number (Nu) and heat transfer coefficient increased with the increase of twisting angle for the whole tested range of Re. The hexagonal cross-section produced an increment of Nu more than a square shape. The hexagonal fins with θ = 90° have higher Nu than other values of twisting angle. The enhancement in heat transfer and heat dissipation performed by square fin was more than hexagonal fins for all values of twisting angle. A decrease in the thermal resistance was recorded with the increase of Re, also, the twisted fins have lower thermal resistance than that of non-twisted pins. The friction factor and pressure drop reduces with an increase of twisting angle. The twisted fins have lower efficiency compared to no twisted fins. The HTPF of the hexagonal pin has the maximum value at twisting angle (θ) = 90° and the lowest value for the square pin at twisting angle (θ) = 30°. Dimensionless empirical general correlations were extracted from the experimental results of the current investigation with maximum deviations about ±8.9%, ±6.3%, and ± 10.6% for Nusselt number, fin efficiency, and friction factor, respectively.

Effects of heat loads on flow and heat transfer in the entrance region of a cooling duct with a staggered array of pin fins

Computational analysis based on SAS, a hybrid RANS-LES method, were performed to study the effects of heat load on the unsteady flow and heat transfer in the entrance region of a cooling duct with a staggered array of short pin fins under conditions relevant to gas turbines. Results obtained with heat loads ranging from 3.2 to 582 kW/m2 show density and velocity variations in the boundary layers created by heat transfer to affect where separation about each pin fin takes place, the row where unsteady vortex shedding starts, the frequency of shedding, and the production of turbulent kinetic energy. It also affected the vortical structures next to the endwall in how horseshoe vortices at the base of each pin interact with the shed vortices. These heat-transfer induced changes in the flow field were found to significantly reduce the rate at which row-averaged Nusselt number, Nu¯, increases along the duct in the entrance region and to enable Nu¯ to be nearly constant in the post-entrance region even though the Reynolds number is decreasing along the duct. Results obtained also show steady RANS to under predict Nu¯ throughout the duct because it could not account for the effects of vortex shedding, and unsteady RANS to under and then over predict Nu¯ along the duct because it could not predict which row vortex shedding first starts and then over predicts its effects on heat transfer. Correlations for Nu¯ were developed that account for heat load in the entrance and in the post-entrance regions.

An artificial neural network model for predicting frictional pressure drop in micro-pin fin heat sink

Abstract This study is part of two studies conducted for developing artificial neural-network-based tools for predicting the thermal and hydraulic performance of micro-pin fin heat sinks used for high-heat-flux electronic devices. The thermal design of high-heat-flux electronics requires a strong understanding of both pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient. Increasing the pressure drop in a cooling system significantly increases the required pumping power and decreases the system energy efficiency, in addition to considerably increasing temperature nonuniformity and causing reliability issues. Micro-pin fin heat sinks can help in the thermal management of high-heat-flux electronic systems owing to their effective heat transfer characteristics, namely, a large surface area and passage flow turbulence generation, and the requirement of lower pumping power compared with the microchannel heat sink. Studies conducted over the past decade have revealed that the thermal and hydraulic performance of micro-pin fin heat sinks are highly dependent on their geometric and operational parameters. However, a universal approach to predicting the frictional pressure drop, which influences the amount of power required, in pin fin arrays for various operating conditions and geometric shapes has not been developed so far. In this study, a trained artificial neural network (ANN) was used to develop a universal model for predicting the friction factor of micro-pin fin arrays. The friction factor correlation was predicted from 1,651 experimentally determined friction factor data points obtained from 22 studies. The relationship between a wide range of geometric and operating conditions and the hydraulic performance was investigated for accurately training the ANN. Furthermore, the universal model was analyzed by comparing values predicted by it with values obtained in other experimental studies. The model was found to show superior performance compared with other regression-method-based correlations.

In-situ phase separation to improve phase change heat transfer performance

Phase change is widely applied in thermal-power conversion, cooling and thermal management, influencing efficiency, safety and cost of energy systems. The complicated mass, momentum and energy exchanges between two-phases causes large pressure drops, critical heat fluxes and flow instabilities. Here, a review on phase separation principle for phase change heat transfer is provided. The phase separation principle is presented in a theoretical form. Design and operation of phase separation for evaporator, condenser and heat pipe are commented. Because phase separation assigns pathways for liquid and vapor, it improves pool boiling performance and eliminates flow instability for micro-evaporator. For micro-condenser, the lined pin fins array creates liquid and vapor passages. The expanded liquid passage adapts increased flow rate to increased flow passage area for liquid. Pin fins are effective for filmwise condensation to increase heat transfer coefficients at low cost of pumping power. Phase separation for macro-condenser was fulfilled by suspending mesh screen membrane tube in condenser tube to confine vapor in annular region, yielding enhanced thin film condensation. Phase separation was commented on smart heat pipe. Superhydrophilic evaporator and superhydrophobic condenser generate nucleate mechanism, achieving increased heat transfer coefficients when heat loads increase. Perspective of phase separation was discussed.

High conversion hydrogen peroxide microchannel reactors: Design and two-phase flow instability investigation

Novel micro-scale reaction devices are progressing in various applications. Whereas, specialized gas-producing reactors of high conversion at micro/mini scale remain challenging and are rarely explored, but are needed urgently in new generation vehicles and aerospace applications. In this work, two kinds of high-aspect-ratio flat channel (200 μm depth, 5.0 mm width, and 40.0 mm length) microreactors with platinum foil catalyst, named as inlet reactors and outlet reactors, are designed and tested for H2O2 decomposition. The wavelet transform method is applied to analyze the effects of reactant flow rate and pin–fin configuration on flow instability in both the time domain and the frequency domain. The inlet reactors utilize periodic flow pattern transitions to achieve an independence of conversion on reactant flow rate. For outlet reactors, the upstream compressible slug volume and the backflow are restricted by the pin–fin array, and thus the H2O2 decomposition reaches a conversion of 59.0% at 5 ml/h reactant flow rate. This conversion is 300% higher than those of H2O2 decomposition in microchannel reactors ever reported in the literature. The results from this work can be used for the design and manufacturing of micro-scale reactors for gas involved applications.

Effect of pitching and rolling motion on hydrothermal performance of rectangular channel flow enhanced by twisted-tape pin–fin array

Abstract Motivated by the requirements for the effective heat exchange with marine applications, the hydrothermal performances of the rectangular channel enhanced by the array of twisted-tape pin-fins in rolling and pitching motions were studied using the steady-state infrared thermography method. The distributions of endwall Nusselt number, the Fanning friction coefficients, and the thermal performance factors were measured at Reynolds numbers of 1500, 2500, 3500, 4500 and 5500 with the test channel in single pitching, single rolling and combined pitching-rolling motions. For each mode of swinging condition with the frequency of 0, 0.5, 0.667 or 0.833 Hz at each Reynolds number tested, four heater powers were applied to the test channel for exploring the buoyancy effect on the heat transfer performance. While the present pitching or rolling forces agitated the vortical flows developed in the pin–fin channel to augment strain rates for heat transfer enhancements, the synergetic heat transfer impact at the combined pitching-rolling mode suppressed the effectiveness of heat transfer enhancement attributed to the single pitching and single rolling motions. Relative to the static-channel conditions, the time-mean averaged Nusselt numbers in the single pitching, the single rolling and the combined pitching-rolling motions were modified to 0.88–1.31, 1.02–1.55 and 0.98–1.77 times of the static-channel Nusselt numbers with the corresponding elevations of friction factor to 1.05–2.59, 0.76–2.50 and 2.09–6.79 times of the static-channel references. At all the swinging conditions tested, the time-mean local and area-averaged Nusselt numbers were increased by enhancing the buoyancy level. The considerable pressured drop augmentations at the combined pitching and rolling modes led to the degradation of the hydrothermal performance from that with the single pitching or the single rolling motions. In addition to the newly devised array of twisted tapes as a passive heat transfer enhancement method, the individual and synergetic impacts of pitching and rolling motions on the detailed heat transfer distribution revealed by the present study went beyond the previous efforts in the literature. For assisting the relevant engineering applications, two set of empirical correlations that calculated the time-mean endwall averaged Nusselt number and Fanning friction coefficient of the present twisted-tape pin–fin channel in single pitching, single rolling and combined pitching-rolling motions were devised.

Heat Transfer in Rotating, Trailing Edge, Converging Channels With Partial Length Pin-Fins

AbstractIn the current study, the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a rotating, partial pin-finned, cooling channel that has a trapezoidal cross section and converges from the hub to tip in both the streamwise and spanwise directions are experimentally investigated. To model the geometry of an internal trailing edge cooling passage, the channel is oriented with respect to the direction of rotation (β = 120 deg). Isolated copper plates are used to obtain regionally averaged heat transfer coefficients on the leading and trailing surfaces. Pressure drop is measured using pressure taps placed at the inlet and outlet of the channel. Utilizing Dp = 5 mm diameter pins, a staggered array is created. For this array, the streamwise pin-spacing, Sy/Dp = 2.1, was kept constant; however, the spanwise pin-spacing, Sx/Dp, was varied from the hub to tip between 3 and 2.6 due to the channel convergence. Experiments were conducted for two partial pin-fin sets having pin length-to-diameter ratios of Sz/Dp = 0.4 and 0.2. The rotation number was varied from 0 to 0.21 by ranging the inlet Reynolds number from 10,000 to 40,000 and rotation speed from 0 to 300 rpm. A significant decrease in pressure loss and a slight reduction in heat transfer enhancement are observed with the use of partial pin-fins compared with the previously reported full pin-fin converging channel study. This provides better thermal performances of the partial pin-fin arrays compared with the full pin-fin array, in the converging channels.

Performance Improvement of Trailing Edge Internal Cooling with Drop-Shaped Pin Fin Array

AbstractIn this paper, flow and heat transfer in a blade trailing edge cooling channel with differently shaped pin fin arrays were investigated numerically in a Reynolds number range from 10,000 to...

Conjugate Heat Transfer Study of Innovative Pin-Fin Cooling Configuration

The Paper involves experimental and numerical heat transfer analyses of four pin-fin cooling configurations in a rectangular channel. Two design concepts were studied with two separate pin-fin (cylindrical and triangular) geometries. The first design includes a single-wall pin-fin configuration where the coolant flows through an array of full-length cylindrical (PF) and triangular pin fins (TF). The second configuration involves a double-wall pin-fin–jet configuration where the coolant jet impinges on the target wall, then flows through the array of partial-length cylindrical pin fins with jets (PFC) and partial-length triangular pin fins with jets (TFC). IR thermography was used to measure the steady state wall temperature of the target surface to estimate the overall cooling effectiveness . A transient heat transfer experiment was conducted to evaluate the internal heat transfer coefficient from the transient wall temperature. It is found that the double-wall pin-fin–jet (PFC and TFC) configurations show higher cooling effectiveness compared to the single-wall pin-fin (PF and TF) designs and the triangular pin fin (TF and TFC) showed a higher heat transfer augmentation compared to the cylindrical pin fin (PF and PFC) design. Numerical study later confirmed that the triangular pin fin creates a pair of streamwise vortices that augments the local heat transfer. The presence of the pin fin in the double-wall configuration prevents the development of a strong crossflow that negatively affects the heat transfer of the impinging jet. In addition, the triangular pin fin not only prevents the strong crossflow but redirects the coolant in the lateral direction that eventually contributes to the formation of a counterrotating vortex pair in the streamwise direction and thus augments local heat transfer and improves overall cooling effectiveness. Pressure drop measurement showed that the full-length triangular pin fin has a higher-pressure loss but the partial-length pin fin can lower the pressure loss considerably without compromising additional cooling performance.

Investigation of Endwall Heat Transfer in Staggered Pin Fin Arrays

Abstract Arrays of staggered pin fins are a typical geometry found in the trailing edge region of modern airfoils. If coolant is supplied by bleeding from the mid-section of the airfoil instead of provided through the root, the channel length is insufficiently long to reach a fully developed flow which is commonly found from the fifth row downstream. This present study focuses on the developing section (four rows) of a staggered array with a height-to-diameter ratio of 2 and a spanwise and streamwise spacing of 2.5, respectively. Measurements are conducted at Reynolds numbers of 10,000 and 30,000 based on the maximum velocity and pin diameter. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to describe the flow field and turbulence characteristics in the wake of the first and third row pin. It is found that the dominating vortical structures depend highly on the Reynolds number. A transient thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) technique is used to obtain local heat transfer coefficients on the endwall which are then discussed in the context with the vortical structures. The structure of the horseshoe vortex and the transient wake shedding behaves differently in the first and third row. The interaction of both vortex systems affects directly the endwall heat transfer. The results are supplemented by a thorough discussion of TLC and PIV uncertainty.

An optimum design for a natural convection pin fin array with orientation consideration

A three-dimensional optimum pin fin heat sink (PFHS) design problem is investigated numerically using the Levenberg-Marquardt Method (LMM) and a commercial package, CFD-ACE+, and experimentally under natural convection conditions and the fixed pin fin material constraint. The purpose is to design the optimal pin heights, pin diameters and orientation angles of the PFHS and thus minimize the thermal resistance Rth and enhance the heat dissipation performance of the system. The radiation effect between the PFHS and air is considered in this work. It indicates that when considering only the perimeter pin fins and neglecting the interior pin fins, the optimal heat dissipation performance is obtained. The novelty of this work lies in that a functional form of a tapered pin is established and its optimal design variables are then estimated, which has not been examined previously. Finally, experimental verifications were conducted on the fabricated heat sinks; the temperatures measured by the thermal camera are in good agreement with the numerical temperatures on those heat sinks, since the maximum relative error is less than 3.68% and the maximum discrepancy between computed and measured Rth is smaller than 1.79%. Result reveals that the tapered pin heat sink (design D) with a 66° orientation angle has the lowest thermal resistance among all designs, and its thermal resistance is 18.7% smaller than that of a traditional PFHS, showing the validity of this design algorithm in estimating the optimal variables of the natural convection PFHSs.

Topology optimization of microchannel heat sinks using a homogenization approach

Topology optimization for heat sink devices typically relies on penalization methods to ensure the final designs are composed of strictly solid or open regions. In this work, we formulate a homogenization approach wherein the partial densities are physically represented as porous microstructures. This formulation allows design of thermal management components that have sub-grid features and leverages additive manufacturing techniques that can produce such partially porous regions within the build volume. Topology optimization of a liquid-cooled microchannel heat sink is presented for a hotspot over a uniform background heat input. The partial densities are represented as arrays of pin fins with varying gap sizes to achieve sub-grid-resolution features. To this end, the pin fins are modeled as a porous medium with volume-averaged effective properties. Height-averaged two-dimensional flow and non-equilibrium thermal models for porous media are developed for transport in the pin fin array. Through multi-objective optimization, the hydraulic and the thermal performance of the topologically optimized designs is investigated. The pin fin thickness is chosen based on the minimum reliable printing feature size of state-of-the-art direct metal laser sintering machines, and the gap sizes between the pin fins are optimized. The resulting topologies have porous-membrane-like designs where the liquid is transported through a fractal network of open, low-hydraulic-resistance manifold pathways and then forced across tightly spaced arrays of pin fins for effective heat transfer. The effects of the grid resolution and the initial design guess on the resulting topologies and performances are reported. The topologically optimized designs are revealed to offer significant performance improvements relative to the benchmark, a straight microchannel heat sink with features optimized under the same multi-objective cost function. The work demonstrates that representing partial densities as porous microstructures results in nearly resolution-independent performance at sufficiently-small grid sizes through the use of sub-grid features.

Single Phase Liquid Cooling of High Heat Flux Devices With Local Hotspot in a Microgap With Nonuniform Fin Array

Abstract Single-phase liquid cooling in microchannels and microgaps has been successfully demonstrated for heat fluxes of ∼1 kW/cm2 for silicon chips with maximum temperature below 100 °C. However, effectively managing localized hotspots in heterogeneous integration, which refers to the integration of various components that achieve multiple functionalities, entails further thermal challenges. To address these, we use a nonuniform pin-fin array. Single phase liquid-cooling performance of four silicon test chips, thermal design vehicles (TDVs), each with a nonuniform pin-fin array, are experimentally examined. We evaluate multiple combinations of hotspot and background heat fluxes using four background heaters aligned upstream to downstream, and one additional hotspot heater located in the center. We examine the thermal performance of cylindrical fin-enhanced TDVs and hydrofoil fin-enhanced TDVs, both with two designs: one with increased fin density around the hotspot only, and another with increased fin density spanning the entire width of the channel. The resulting heat flux ratio of the localized hotspot to background heaters varies from 1 to 5. TDVs with spanwise increased hydrofoil fin density (spanwise hydrofoil) exhibit the best thermal performance with 6% to 14% lower hotspot temperature than others. TDVs with spanwise increased cylindrical fin (cylindrical spanwise) maintain a balance between hotspot cooling performance and pressure drops. In general, as the temperature of the hotspot remains around 70 °C with a heat flux of 625 W/cm2, the nonuniform fin-enhanced microgaps appears to be a promising hotspot thermal management approach. The pressure drop of hydrofoil spanwise chip is highest among all the cases.

Numerical investigation on the characteristics of flow and heat transfer enhancement by micro pin-fin array heat sink with fin-shaped strips

Targeted at improving microfluidic cooling for the use of micro heat sink in electronic chips, a novel fin-shaped pin-fin array heat sink is proposed. In this study, the mechanism of flow and heat transfer, the arrangements of pin-fin layout, the characteristics of single-phase flow and heat transfer among the micro cylinder pin-fin heat sink, micro fin-shaped pin-fin heat sink of A、B、C types are investigated. It’s showed that stagger micro fin-shaped A pin-fin (SMFAP) exhibits the best hydro-thermal performance. At high Reynolds number, the average Nusselt number of SMFAP reaches up to two times of the in-line micro cylinder pin-fin (IMCP). Moreover, the structure of fin-shaped pin-fin can enhance heat transfer by increasing Nu, while weaken heat transfer by large pressure drop. Therefore, the non-dimensional parameter PEC is adopted to evaluate the heat transfer performance of heat sink. When Re is 800, the PEC of SMFAP reaches to its maximum value of 1.4. SMFAP can effectively enhance heat transfer, while stagger micro fin-shaped B pin-fin(SMFBP) and stagger micro fin-shaped C pin-fin (SMFCP) are not obviously. It’s concluded that different structures of fin-shaped pin-fin will affect the separation point of flow, thus affecting the size of vortex behind the cylinder.

EFFECTS OF VARIOUS COOLANTS ON FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS IN A ROUND-TIP PIN-FINNED INTERNAL CHANNEL

This paper performs a numerical study regarding the effects of different kinds of coolants on flow and heat transfer in a pin-finned internal channel. A new pin-fin structure detached from one endwall with a round-tip is proposed which aims to increase the heat transfer enhancement. As a contrast, the investigation of the typical fully-attached pin-fin and the flat-tip detached pin-fin is also considered. In order to evaluate the reliability of the numerical method, an experiment of an internal channel with round-tip pin-fin arrays is conducted to serve as the reference, and all cases are carried out with the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The effects of coolants including air, mist/air, steam, and mist/steam are analyzed with the Reynolds number ranging from 15, 000 to 50, 000. The results reveal that the round-tip pin-fin outperforms in heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss deterioration among all three pin-fin structures. With respect to Reynolds numbers, the averaged Nusselt numbers increase gradually for all coolants, and cases of mist/steam achieve the highest values, followed by cases of steam, mist/air, and air, respectively, but the differences between the mist coolants and pure coolants are not obvious as the Reynolds number is lower than 30, 000. In conclusion, cases of mist/steam obtain the best thermal performances, and the internal channel with round-tip pin-fin arrays using mist/steam as coolant is most favorable. (Less)

Experimental heat transfer and flow simulations of rectangular channel with twisted-tape pin-fin array

In this study, an innovative twisted-tape pin-fin array was proposed for passive heat transfer enhancement (HTE) to improve the aerothermal performance of channel flows. The full-field Nusselt number distributions, Fanning friction coefficients and thermal performance factors of an improved channel were measured at Reynolds numbers of 5000, 7500, 10,000, 12,500, and 15,000. The turbulent channel flows were numerically explored using the ANSYS-Fluent code to perform correlative analysis between the aerothermal measurements and numerical flow results. A set of aerothermal data and numerical flow results was selected to illustrate the properties of HTE and the responsive flow mechanisms. Because of the vortical flows induced by each twisted tape in the array, the average measured Nusselt numbers and Fanning friction coefficients of the improved channel were 5.26–4.73 and 39.4–38.5 times higher than those of a plain tube, respectively; thus, the thermal performance factor (TPF) of the improved channel was 1.55–1.39 when 5000 <Re< 15,000. Compared with the pin-fin channels with different geometries reported in the literature, the twisted-tape pin-fin channel designed in this study provided a higher degree of HTE and thus a higher TPF at the same pressure drop penalty and pumping power. On the basis of the experimental results, two empirical correlations that were used to evaluate the average endwall Nusselt number and Fanning friction coefficient of the designed pin-fin channel were proposed for relevant applications.