Comparative Study of the Flow and Thermal Performance of Liquid-Cooling Parallel-Flow and Counter-Flow Double-Layer Wavy Microchannel Heat Sinks

Abstract

Applications of microchannel heat sinks for dissipating heat loads have received great attention. Wavy channels are recognized to be an alternative cooling technology to enhance the heat transfer, and are successfully applied in heat exchangers. In this article, three kinds of liquid-cooling double-layer microchannel heat sinks, such as a rectangular straight microchannel heat sink, a parallel-flow wavy microchannel heat sink, and a counter-flow double-layer wavy microchannel heat sink, have been designed and the corresponding laminar flow and heat transfer have been investigated numerically. The effects of the wave amplitude and volumetric flow ratio on heat transfer, pressure drop, and thermal resistance are also observed. Results show that the counter-flow double-layer wavy microchannel heat sink is superior at a larger flow rate, and a more uniform temperature rise is achieved. For a slightly larger flow rate, the parallel flow layout shows better performance. In addition to the overall thermal resistance, other criteria for evaluation of the overall thermal performance, e.g., (Nu/Nu₀)/(f/f₀) and (Nu/Nu₀)/(f/f₀)^1/3, are applied and similar results are obtained.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the NPU Foundation for Fundamental Research (NPU-FFR-JC201031) the NPU Foundation for Ao-xiang Star Program, and by the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20116102120021). Professor W.H. Zhang's work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10925212).