No abstract

Sectional oblique fins are employed, in contrast to continuous fins, in order to modulate the flow in a microchannel heat sink. The breakage of continuous fin into oblique sections leads to reinitialization of boundary layers and generation of secondary flows that significantly enhance the cooling performance of the heat sink. In addition, an oblique finned microchannel heat sink has the flexibility to tailor local heat transfer performance by varying its oblique fin pitch. Clusters of oblique fins at higher density can be created in order to promote a greater degree of boundary layer redevelopment and secondary flow generation to provide more effective cooling at the high heat-flux region. Thus, the variation of oblique fin pitch can be exploited for hotspot mitigation. Experimental studies of a silicon chip with two hotspot scenarios show that the temperature hike and the temperature difference for the enhanced microchannel heat sink with variable pitch are reduced by as much as 17.1°C and 15.4°C, respectively. As a result, temperature distribution across the silicon chip is more uniform. In addition, the associated pressure drop penalty is much smaller than the achieved heat transfer enhancement, rendering it as an effective hotspot mitigating strategy for the single-phase microchannel heat sink.Index Terms-Enhanced microchannel, hotspot cooling, oblique fins, variable pitch.

No abstract

In order to scrutinize the coolant mass distribution and its effect to the heat transfer in oblique fin microchannel array, extensive numerical studies are performed on planar oblique fin configuration. Full-domain simulations using common-flow down (CFD) approach are employed to provide better insights into the flow distribution, flow stability, and heat transfer performance at a global level. The flow field and temperature profile analysis shows that nonuniform coolant distribution and coolant migration occur in the oblique fin microchannel, and the heat transfer performance for both edges of the heat sink is affected due to changing secondary flow rate. However, the flow migration does not affect the local coolant velocity and temperature profiles significantly in the middle region (0.2 < Z′ < 0.8). Meanwhile, it is also found that Reynolds number affects the coolant migration, the stability of the fluid flow, and heat transfer performance significantly. Higher Reynolds number increases the percentage of secondary flow rate and, hence, enhances the heat transfer for fin surfaces in secondary channels.

No abstract