The flow and heat transfer performance of a novel double-spiral heat sink for processing unit cooling

Abstract

The escalating thermal power of processors demands advanced cooling solutions. This study proposes a novel double-spiral heat sink (DSHS) with dual inlets and outlets to address this challenge. First, experiments were conducted to test the performance of different inlet methods. When cooling water flows in from the end with a larger radius of curvature, the temperature difference of the CPU can be 49.3% lower than other methods. A decrease in the radius of curvature enhances the disturbance of the fluid, mitigating the negative impact of rising water temperature on the temperature difference. The simulation results show good consistency with the experimental data. The optimal spiral dimensions are determined to be r = 3 mm and R = 15 mm based on the geometric parameter analysis. Compared with single spiral heat sink (SSHS), DSHS can reduce the pressure drop by 48.3% and temperature difference by 64.1%. In addition, the DSHS is compared with the serpentine heat sink (SHS) to prove its advantages. The results show that the average temperature of the DSHS is slightly lower than that of the SHS, while the pressure drop, temperature difference, and performance evaluation criterion are all significantly better than those of the SHS. DSHS can dissipate a maximum heat of 438 W. The varying radius of curvature of DSHS can continuously disrupt the boundary layer and enhance heat transfer. Furthermore, by slotting the wall surface, the pressure drop is reduced by 10% without affecting the heat dissipation. The DSHS maintains its performance benefits across different working fluids such as ethylene glycol solution and transformer oil, showing its advantage of wide applicability. The proposed DSHS provides a promising alternative design of heat sinks for the processing unit cooling applications.