Fluid flow and heat transfer investigation of microchannel heat sink with sidewall triangle ribs

Abstract

This research evaluates heat transfer and pumping power associated with heat sinks having straight microchannels with triangular ribs on sidewalls using Ansys Workbench. The performance of the heat sinks is evaluated in terms of thermal resistance, pumping power, and a figure of merit (FOM). The heat sink with triangular ribs exhibits lower thermal resistance and higher pumping power than the straight MCHS. In addition, this study evaluates the influence of geometric parameters of the ribs on thermal resistance and pumping power. This study finds that increasing rib dimensions reduces thermal resistance by ∼ 57% while increasing pumping power; however, the FOM improves with reduction in dimensions of the ribs. Reducing the pitch of the fins reduces thermal resistance by ∼ 71% along with increase in the pumping power. Reducing microchannel spacing lowers thermal resistance by ∼68% without affecting pumping power, leading to improved FOM. The reduction in the dimensions of the microchannels improved thermal resistance by ∼ 52% while increasing pumping power; the FOM of MCHSs increased with an increase in channel dimensions.