A permeable-membrane microchannel heat sink made by additive manufacturing

Abstract

Microchannel heat sinks are capable of removing dense heat loads from high-power electronic devices with low thermal resistance, but suffer from high pressure drops due to the small channel dimensions. Features that reduce the pressure drop, such as manifolds, increase fabrication complexity and are constrained by traditional subtractive manufacturing approaches. Additive manufacturing technologies offer improved design freedom and reduced geometric restrictions, expanding the types of features that can be produced and integrated into a heat sink. In this work, a novel permeable membrane microchannel (PMM) heat sink geometry is proposed and fabricated using direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) of an aluminum alloy (AlSi10Mg). In this PMM design, the cooling fluid is forced through thin, porous walls that act as both conducting fins and membranes that allow flow through their fine internal flow features for efficient heat exchange. The design leverages the ability of this fabrication process to incorporate complex, arbitrarily curved structures having internal porosity to enhance heat transfer and reduce pressure drop across the heat sink. The PMM heat sink geometry is benchmarked against a low-pressure-drop manifold microchannel (MMC) heat sink. A reduced-order model is used to explore the relative performance trends between the designs. Both heat sinks are experimentally characterized at flow rates of 50-500 mL/min using deionized water as the working fluid. At a constant pumping power of 0.018 W, the permeable membrane microchannel design offers both lower thermal resistance (17% reduction) and lower pressure drop (28% reduction) compared to the manifold microchannel heat sink.

Recent Advancements in Thermal Performance Enhancement in Microchannel Heatsinks for Electronic Cooling Application

“…3-dimensional simulation models give an accurate result than 2-dimensional simulation models but computational time is less for a 2-dimensional model. Similar outcomes were found in the 2D and 3D simulation model studies conducted on the [29].…”

“…This study proved that the pressure drop in the sintered copper microchannel was higher than the microchannel machined conventionally and noticeably lower than the porous Copper microchannel fabricated by the Lost carbonate sintering method (LCS). Ivel L. Collins et al [29] performed the direct-metal-laser-sintering Schematic diagram of the transistor with liquid-cooled heatsink [21]. method (DMLS) for manufacturing of two MCHS models, PMM (permeable membrane MCHS) and MMC (manifold MCHS) heat-sinks shown in Figure 3.…”

“…A novel MCHS model namely, permeable membrane MCHS (PMM) and manifold microchannel heatsink (MMC) manufactured by Direct metal laser sintering method using an aluminum alloy was studied experimentally and noticed the better performance of the PMM heat sink [29]. Figure 3 shows the images of PMM and MMC heat sinks.…”

Evaluation of Active Heat Sinks Design under Forced Convection—Effect of Geometric and Boundary Parameters

“…Later, Syed-Khaja et al [ 14 ] used PBF to fabricate a heat sink design that showed key enabling advantages such as the reduction in volume, weight, and chip temperatures. To date, several other studies have emerged regarding heat sinks produced by additive manufacturing [ 5 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”

Selective Laser Melting Heat Sinks under Jet Impingement Cooling for Heat Dissipation of Higher Light Output LED Lighting in a Limited Space

“…Collins et al (2019) [4] proposed and experimentally evaluated a novel permeable membrane microchannel (PMM) heat sink design. The AlSi10Mg aluminum alloy fabricated by DMLS was used to produce the features with complex and thin porous wall to overcome the pressure drop issues.…”