CFD ANALYSIS OF RECTANGULAR MICRO CHANNEL HEAT SINK

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the present study fluid flow, pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics in two types of micro-channel heat sinks have been analyzed using computational fluid dynamics. One of them is a straight rectangular micro-channel heat sink on which validation is done by comparing experimental results with numerical results while the other is a wavy edge type rectangular micro-channel heat sink for which simulation results are obtained. Water is used as a coolant for the simulation. The material for heat sink is copper. Both the micro-channels have a width of 0.23mm and height of 0.71mm. The aspect ratio (ɣ) and the length of both the channels is kept same as 0.32 and 44.7mm respectively. The analysis for both the micro-channels is done for five sets of Reynolds number which are 400, 600, 800, 1000 and 1200 respectively. The two values of heat flux used are 100W/𝑐𝑚2and 200W/𝑐𝑚2.After constructing the geometry in solid works the simulation is done on ANSYS CFX. For both the straight micro-channel and the wavy micro-channel investigated, it is found that the thermal performance of wavy edge micro-channels is better in comparison to that of straight micro-channels. The temperature rise of water is more in wavy edge type micro-channels in comparison to that of straight micro-channels of the same hydraulic diameter for different sets of Reynolds number for different values of heat flux. Further the pressure drop is more in wavy type of channels which can be compensated due to the high heat transfer characteristics of wavy micro-channels.