Interferometric measurement and numerical comparisons of supersonic heat transfer flows in microchannel

•Effective cooling design by super-/sub-sonic air flow in microchannels is proposed.•Microscale supersonic flows is successfully generated and examined.•Microchannel flow density field were visualized quantitatively by interferometer.•The bump design shows great potential of heat transfer enhancement in microscale.

With the fast development of electronic systems and the ever-increasing demand of thermally “smart” design in space and aeronautic engineering, the heat transfer innovations and high heat flux challenges have become a hot topic for decades. This study is aimed at the effective cooling heat transfer design by super-/sub-sonic air flow in microscale channels for high heat flux devices. The design is based on the low temperature flows with supersonic expansion in microscale, which yields a compact and simple design. By careful microelectromechanical process, microscale straight and bumped channels (with simple arc curve) are fabricated and experimentally tested in this study. The microscale flow field and density distributions under new designs are visualized quantitatively by an advanced phase-shifting interferometer system, which results are then compared carefully with numerical simulations. In this study, large differences between the two designs in density distribution and temperature changes (around 50 K) are found. The high heat flux potential for supersonic microchannel flows is realized and discussion into detail. It is confirmed that the bump design contributes significantly to the heat transfer enhancement, which shows potential for future application in novel system designs.