The Effect of Micro Pin-Fin Shape on Thermal and Hydraulic Performance of Micro Pin-Fin Heat Sinks

Abstract

Single micro pin-fin configurations having the same chord thickness/diameter but different shapes are numerically modeled to assess their heat transfer and hydraulic performances for Reynolds number values changing between 20 and 120. The configurations are three-dimensionally modeled based, and their heat transfer performances are evaluated using commercially available software COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a. Navier-Stokes equations and continuity and energy equations are solved under steady-state conditions for single-phase water flows. To increase the computational efficiency, half of the domain consisting of a micro pin-fin located inside a microchannel is modeled using a symmetry plane. To validate the model, experimental data available in the literature are compared to simulation results obtained from the model of the same geometrical configuration as the experimental one. Accordingly, the numerical and experimental results show good agreement. Furthermore, performance evaluation study is performed using three-dimensional (3D) numerical models in the light of flow morphologies around micro pin-fins of various shapes. According to the results obtained from this study, the rectangular-shaped micro pin-fin configuration has the highest Nusselt number and friction factor over the whole Reynolds number range. However, the cone-shaped micro pin-fin configuration has the best thermal performance index, indicating that it could be more preferable to use micro pin-fins of unconventional shapes in micro pin-fin heat sinks.

Pressure loss and heat transfer performance for additively and conventionally manufactured pin fin arrays

“…Numerous studies on micro pin fin arrays have also been performed, made possible by new manufacturing techniques such as diffusion bonding, stereolithography, chemical etching and LIGA [11]. Some of the studies were motivated by an interest in 1X scale performance for gas turbine airfoil skin cooling [12] and others were focused on small electronics cooling [13][14][15].…”

Numerical comparison for thermo-hydraulic performance of pin fin heat sink with micro channel pin fin heat sink

“…When the flow velocity increases, the force exerted by fluid from, pin fin surface increases leading to flow separation around pin fin and wake formation. Increase in flow velocity promotes flow separation leading to increase in larger wake zone [3]. From the stream line contour it is very clear that secondary vortices are formed for both MCHS- SPF and MCHS-CPF, This may be due to the influence of turbulence promoting flow separation at low Reynolds number.…”

“…The concept of micro channel was first proposed by Tuckerman and Pease [1], Shafeie et al [2] numerically studied the performance of heat sink with staggered and oblique arrangement and observed that oblique pin fin performs better compared to staggered for a given pumping power. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics have been explored numerically for heat sink with pin fin structures by Turker Izci et al [3], Hasan et al [4] numerically compared hydrodynamic and heat transfer characteristics of micro pin fin heat sink of different shapes using water and Nano fluids. Sohail et al [5] proposed pin fin array of various shapes to reduce maximum surface temperature.…”

Bi-objective optimization of axial profile of pin fin with uniform base heat flux

“…Aero-and space-based electronic applications that demands high-flux heat dissipation entails stringent requirement on weight and space occupation in the meanwhile [1] [2].…”