Thermo-hydraulic analysis of wavy microchannel heat sinks with porous fins based on field synergy principle

Abstract

In order to enlarge the area and intensity of convective heat transfer among the coolant and heated surface, the vertical fins of microchannel heat sinks (MCHSs) with microencapsulated phase change material slurry (MPCMS) as coolant are arranged into wavy porous channels to realize more heat being dissipated to the outside. The phase transition of microencapsulated particles in laminar flow state is described, and the Brinkman–Forchheimer–Darcy model based on volume average approach and the energy equation for local heat equilibrium are adopted to portray flow and heat transfer in porous medium. The impacts of geometrical parameters on flow and heat transfer behaviour of wavy porous MCHS are numerically analyzed, and performance evaluation factor (PEF) is defined to estimate the thermo-hydraulic capability of heat exchanger. The numeric outcomes match well with the experiments. Results indicate that MPCMS has a significant heat transfer improvement in the newly designed channel configuration compared with the coolant fluid flowing in the straight microchannel. Based on field synergy principle, the comprehensive capability enhancement mechanism of MPCMS in new MCHS is explored, and its superior thermal performance can be attributed to the improvement of the synergistic degree among flow and temperature fields, and its reasonable structural design can effectively improve the heat rejection capacity in the limited space.