Enhanced microchannel heat sinks using oblique fins

Abstract

Oblique fins created in a microchannel heat sink can serve to modulate the flow, resulting in local and global heat transfer enhancement. Numerical analysis of laminar flow and heat transfer in such modified microchannel heat sink showed that significant enhancement of heat transfer can be achieved with negligible pressure drop penalty. The breakage of continuous fin into oblique sections causes the thermal boundary layers to be re-initialized at the leading edge of each oblique fin and reduces the boundary-layer thickness. This regeneration of the entrance effect causes the flow to be always in a developing state thus resulting in better heat transfer. In addition, the presence of the smaller oblique channels causes a fraction of the flow to branch into the adjacent main channels. The secondary flows thus created improve fluid mixing which serves to further enhance the heat transfer. The combination of the entrance and secondary flow effect results in a much improved heat transfer performance (the average and local heat transfer coefficients are enhanced by as much as 80%). Both the maximum wall temperature and temperature gradient are substantially decreased as a result. Copyright © 2009 by ASME.