Numerical Study on Mitigation of Flow Maldistribution in Parallel Microchannel Heat Sink: Channels Variable Width Versus Variable Height Approach

Abstract

Microchannel heat sink on one hand enjoys benefits of intensified several folds heat transfer performance but on the other hand has to suffer aggravated form of trifling limitations associated with imperfect hydrodynamics and heat transfer behavior. Flow maldistribution is one of such limitation that exaggerates temperature nonuniformity across parallel microchannels leading to increase in maximum base temperature. Recently, variable width channels approach had been proposed by the current authors to mitigate the flow maldistribution in parallel microchannels heat sinks (MCHS), and in the current numerical study, variable height approach is opted for flow maldistribution mitigation. It is found that variable height microchannels heat sinks (VHMCHS) approach mitigates flow maldistribution rapidly in comparison to variable width microchannels heat sinks (VWMCHS) approach, almost 50% computational time can be saved by VHMCHS approach. Average fluid–solid interface temperature fluctuation across parallel microchannels reduces 3.3 °C by VHMCHS in comparison to VWMCHS approach. The maximum and average temperatures of the base of the heat sink are further reduced by 5.1 °C and 2.7 °C, respectively, for the VHMCHS. It is found that overall heat transfer performance of the heat sink improves further by 3.8% and 5.1% for the VWMCHS and VHMCHS, respectively. The pressure drop penalty of the VHMCHS is found to be 7.2% higher than VWMCHS.