Laminar thermal performance of microchannel heat sinks with constructal vertical Y-shaped bifurcation plates

• Vertical Y-shaped plates are adopted into microchannel heat sinks.
• Thermal and pressure loss characteristics are described under laminar liquid flow.
• Heat sinks with vertical Y-shaped plates provide better overall thermal performance.
• The case with angle between two arms of the Y-shaped plates of 90 is the best.

With increasing output power of integrated chips, the involved heat flux is accordingly increased. Traditional cooling methods failed to satisfy such a situation, and thus new cooling methods incorporating microchannel heat sinks with high capabilities of heat removal are necessary. In this paper, on the basis of a water-cooled smooth microchannel heat sink, vertical Y-shaped bifurcation plates are designed into the heat sink, and then the corresponding laminar flow and heat transfer are investigated numerically. Four different configurations of Y-shaped plates are considered by adjusting the angle between the two arms of the Y profile. The effects of the angle on heat transfer, pressure drop, and the thermal resistance are also observed and compared with those of the traditional straight microchannel heat sink without bifurcation flow. The overall resistances subjected to inlet Reynolds number and pumping power are also compared for the five microchannel heat sinks. The results show that the thermal performance of the microchannel heat sinks with Y-shaped bifurcation plates is much better than that of the corresponding straight channel. It is suggested that the Y-shaped bifurcation plates placed in water-cooled microchannel heat sinks could improve the overall thermal performance when the angle between the two arms of the Y-shaped plates is designed properly.