Recent Progress on Heat Transfer Performance and Influencing Factors of Different Microchannel Heat Sinks

Abstract

The microchannel heat sink (MCHS) is an efficient thermal management technology widely used in various fields, including electronic equipment, automobiles, and aerospace. In this paper, the recent advances in cross-sectional shape, coolant type, flow channel shape, flow pattern, and application scenarios of the MCHS are systematically reviewed. The liquid film thickness in circular microchannels is the smallest, followed by rectangle, trapezoid, and triangle sections. Conversely, the pressure drop experienced exhibits an inverse relationship with the liquid film thickness. Comparatively, the heat transfer performance of the liquid phase surpasses that of the gas phase, and the two-phase coolant consistently outperforms the single-phase coolant. The study also investigates the impact of flow direction and shape on heat transfer performance. It is found that the implementation of wavy, fractal, and cavity structures enhances heat transfer performance at the expense of increased fluid motion variability, resulting in a loss of pressure drop. Additionally, this paper discusses the occurrence of laminar and turbulent flow phenomena within MCHSs and summarizes their respective influences on heat dissipation performance. On the basis of the aforementioned findings, four key applications of MCHSs are emphasized, accompanied by recommendations for their present utilization and future development. Future research endeavors will concentrate on striking a balance between altering the shape and material characteristics of MCHSs to optimize heat transfer performance while developing novel theoretical models continuously.

Combined Geometrical Optimisation of a Square Microchannel with Smoothed Corners

“…The use of microchannel heat sinks belonging to the so-called MFDs (micro-flow devices) ranges from the integrated cooling of small electronic components to much larger assemblies, such as those for HVAC, and the trend seems to keep steadily increasing [1][2][3][4]. Advanced manufacturing techniques, often pioneered in the semiconductor industry, have opened up new possibilities for creating unique structures and channels with varying cross-sections, allowing the miniaturisation of geometries previously restricted to much larger dimensions [1,[5][6][7][8][9]. This, in turn, has led to renewed interest in exploring laminar forced convection through channels of different shapes, as evidenced by numerous research studies [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”