A New Approach for the Mitigating of Flow Maldistribution in Parallel Microchannel Heat Sink

Abstract

The problem of flow maldistribution is very critical in microchannel heat sinks (MCHS). It induces temperature nonuniformity, which may ultimately lead to the breakdown of associated system. In the present communication, a novel approach for the mitigation of flow maldistribution problem in parallel MCHS has been proposed using variable width microchannels. Numerical simulation of copper made parallel MCHS consisting of 25 channels has been carried out for the conventional design (CD) and the proposed design (PD). It is observed that the PD reduces flow maldistribution by 93.7%, which facilitated in effective uniform cooling across the entire projected area of MCHS. Temperature fluctuation at fluid-solid interface is reduced by 4.3 C, whereas maximum and average temperatures of microchannels projected area are reduced by 2.3 C and 1.1 C, respectively. PD is suitable in alleviating flow maldistribution problem for the extended range of off design conditions. © 2018 by ASME.