The manifold microchannel (MMC) heat sink, which possesses better heat transfer performance and less pressure drop than the traditional microchannel heat sink, has attracted much attention from researchers in recent years. But not much of them focused on the problems about flow maldistribution and wall temperature nonuniformity that might ultimately lead to system breakdown. To investigate the flow distribution in the MMC heat sink, six types of manifold, namely Z-type, C-type, H-type, U-type, ZU-type, and HU-type are considered in the current study. All six manifolds are investigated in single-phase cases with water, which are solved with the self-developed codes based on the OpenFOAM package. The manifold arrangement has a strong impact on the overall heat transfer performance and pumping power required. The Z-type, C-type, and H-type manifolds with small outlets have much uneven flow distribution compared to the U-type, ZU-type, and HU-type. The higher mass flux and lower liquid temperature attribute to lower the local wall temperature. The HU-type and ZU-type MMC heat sinks are recommended to be fabricated in the single-phase heat transfer application due to their small thermal resistance lower than 2×10-5 m2∙K/W and pressure drop less than 500 Pa. Besides, if the pumping power is not a restriction factor in the system, Z-type MMC is also recommended.

Numerical Simulation of Single-Phase Flow and Heat Transfer in Various Manifold Microchannel

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/FEDSM/FEDSM2021/volume/85284

ASME 2021 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting (FEDSM2021)

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