Numerical study on thermal hydraulic performance of water cooled mini-channel heat sinks

• Conjugate heat transfer on heat sinks with various fin parameters is investigated.
• Pressure drop and local heat transfer characteristics in heat sinks are provided.
• Optimum heat sink geometry with best thermal hydraulic performance is proposed.

This paper presents a numerical investigation on the thermal hydraulic performance of mini-channel heat sinks with different fin configurations. Results in terms of pressure drop, base temperature, thermal resistance, and overall heat transfer coefficient were compared for different geometrical configurations modeled by variation of fin spacing, fin thickness and fin height of the heat sink. In comparison to un-finned geometry, a reduction of 44.84% in base temperature was observed with the minimum temperature value of 33.7 °C33.7 °C for the heat sink with fin spacing and fin thickness of 0.2 mm and 0.4 mm respectively. In association with the previous studies, pressure drop and thermal resistance were reduced by 46.5% and 30.4% respectively. The heat sink geometry with the best thermal performance was also simulated for higher heat fluxes within the same operating limits. Results were validated using available correlations and experimental data. Flow maldistribution, pressure drop and local heat transfer coefficient in the header are also reported.