Thermal Performance of Microchannels Heat Sink with Fins on side walls

The main objective of this study is to investigate the thermal performance of straight microchannel heat sinks with fins on sidewalls. A mathematical model is developed and used to carry out the simulation-based study to examine the performance of the microchannel heat sink. The mathematical modeling is done by building a CAD model of the heat sink and carrying out the thermal analysis using the ANSYS Fluent software. From the CFD study, numerical results are obtained for different operational and geometrical conditions. The study shows that using a straight microchannel with pin fins on side walls is better at lower ranges of Reynolds number lower than 400; however, at Reynolds number higher than 400 the straight microchannel with smooth sidewalls shows better performance. Moreover, at a higher Reynolds number than 800, the pressure drop increases significantly. Furthermore, increasing the size of pin fins for both triangle and square fins enhances thermal resistance but also leads to higher pressure drop. To address this trade-off, the study employs FOM analysis, where Design 1 with smaller triangle-shaped fins outperforms Design 2, averaging an FOM value of 24.58 at Reynolds numbers between 250 and 1500. Similarly, for square fins, Design 3 performs better compared to Design 4, with an average FOM value of 38.38 at Reynolds numbers from 250 to 1500.