Computational fluid dynamics based investigation of the performance of hybrid heat sinks

This article discusses the mathematical modeling of a straight microchannel heat sink, embedded with pin-fins, for purposes of liquid cooling of microelectronic chips. The influence of three different geometrical parameters, pin fins' diameter, pitch, and hydraulic diameter, on the heat sinks performance is studied. The studies are performed for Reynolds numbers varying from 250 to 2000, and the results are quantified based on thermal resistance and pressure drop. The heat sinks embedded with pin fins have better performance in terms of thermal resistance but at the same time have higher pressure drop. Studies revealed that increasing the pin fins' diameter, pitch, and hydraulic diameter have an influence on the thermal resistance; the thermal resistance is found to be decreasing with increasing these parameters for the same Reynolds number. For the cases studied, the reduction in thermal resistance of straight microchannels embedded with pin fins varied from 18% to 60% compared with that of traditional straight microchannels for different heat sinks configurations and Reynolds number. On the other hand, the pressure drop is increasing with an increase in pin fins' diameter and pitch, while it is found to be decreasing with increasing the hydraulic diameter.