Thermal management as a method of heightening performance in miniaturized electronic devices using microchannel heat sinks has recently become of interest to researchers and the industry. One of the current challenges is to design heat sinks with uniform flow distribution. A number of experimental studies have been conducted to seek appropriate designs for microchannel heat sinks. However, pursuing this goal experimentally can be an expensive endeavor. The present work investigates the effect of cross-links on adiabatic two-phase flow in an array of parallel channels. It is carried out using the three-dimensional mixture model from the computational fluid dynamics software, FLUENT 6.3. A straight channel and two cross-linked channel models were simulated. The cross-links were located at 1/3 and 2/3 of the channel length, and their widths were one and two times larger than the channel width. All test models had 45 parallel rectangular channels, with a hydraulic diameter of 1.59 mm. The results showed that the trend of flow distribution agrees with experimental results. A new design, with cross-links incorporated, was proposed and the results showed a significant improvement of up to 55% on flow distribution compared with the standard straight channel configuration without a penalty in the pressure drop. Further discussion about the effect of cross-links on flow distribution, flow structure, and pressure drop was also documented.
Skip Nav Destination
e-mail: ibrahimh@alcor.concordia.ca
Article navigation
December 2008
Research Papers
Numerically Investigating the Effects of Cross-Links in Scaled Microchannel Heat Sinks
Minh Dang,
Minh Dang
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Concordia University
, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Ibrahim Hassan,
Ibrahim Hassan
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
e-mail: ibrahimh@alcor.concordia.ca
Concordia University
, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Sung In Kim
Sung In Kim
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Concordia University
, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Minh Dang
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Concordia University
, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
Ibrahim Hassan
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Concordia University
, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
e-mail: ibrahimh@alcor.concordia.ca
Sung In Kim
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Concordia University
, Montreal, QC, H3G 1M8, Canada
J. Fluids Eng. Dec 2008, 130(12): 121103 (13 pages)
Published Online: October 23, 2008
Article history
Received:
July 14, 2007
Revised:
July 3, 2008
Published:
October 23, 2008
Citation
Dang, M., Hassan, I., and Kim, S. I. (October 23, 2008). "Numerically Investigating the Effects of Cross-Links in Scaled Microchannel Heat Sinks." ASME. J. Fluids Eng. December 2008; 130(12): 121103. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3001093
Download citation file:
Get Email Alerts
Cited By
Related Articles
Experimental Investigation and Theoretical Model for Subcooled Flow Boiling Pressure Drop in Microchannel Heat Sinks
J. Electron. Packag (September,2009)
Analytical Modeling of Annular Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Mini- and Microchannel Heat Sinks
J. Heat Transfer (April,2010)
Transport Phenomena in Two-Phase Micro-Channel Heat Sinks
J. Electron. Packag (June,2004)
Two-Phase Microchannel Heat Sinks: Theory, Applications, and Limitations
J. Electron. Packag (December,2011)
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Chapters
Outlook
Closed-Cycle Gas Turbines: Operating Experience and Future Potential
Introduction
Thermal Management of Microelectronic Equipment
Applications
Introduction to Finite Element, Boundary Element, and Meshless Methods: With Applications to Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow