Thermal characteristics of tree-shaped microchannel nets for cooling of a rectangular heat sink

Abstract

Conventional parallel and serpentine microchannel nets have some inherent drawbacks such as the high pressure drop required and uneven temperature distribution achieved, which limit their wide applications. Since natural systems often give optimal solutions for many problems, the structure of living organism can provide ideas for the design of new microchannel cooling systems. In the current study, conjugated fluid flow and heat transfer through tree-shaped branching microchannel networks, which is embedded in a rectangular heat sink, was numerically investigated. A series of parametric tests were conducted for such microchannel networks. Results show that such channel networks have certain advantages over conventional parallel channel nets such as lower and more uniform temperature distribution and better stability in case of accidental blockage in channel segments. © 2006 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.