Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Microchannel Heat Sinks Designed for Uniform Cooling

Liquid convective heat transfer for miniature heat sinks has proved to be efficient in heat dissipation from electronic components of shrunk scales. The current numerical study presents a novel fin topography for microchannel heat sink which has been more efficient than conventional straight channels in uniform cooling. Unlike inlet plenums, the design includes flow to the heat sink (lower plate) entirely through jets with an optimized pattern, which has been designed to account for uniform cooling. The temperature distribution over the heating surface (the surface to be cooled) of the novel design has been compared to that of a straight microchannel with rectangular fins of 0.8 mm height with 1 mm wall height. Comparison between novel design and straight channels has been done using standard deviation for the same heating surface area of 645.16 mm2. A constant heat flux of 50 × 10−2 W/mm2 has been used throughout the numerical analysis. Enhanced uniformity of cooling comes at the expense of increased pressure loss. Steady flow in both laminar and turbulent regimes was analyzed with appropriate models. The results suggested that the novel design would be much more suitable for turbulent flows of liquid-cooled systems than laminar.