3-Dimensional Numerical Study of Cooling Performance of a Heat Sink With Air-Water Flow Through Mini-channel

The present microelectronics market demands devices with high power dissipation capabilities having enhanced cooling per unit area. The drive for miniaturizing the devices to even micro level dimensions is shooting up the applied heat flux on such devices, resulting in complexity in heat transfer and cooling management. In this paper, a method of CPU processor cooling is introduced where active and passive cooling techniques are incorporated simultaneously. A heat sink consisting of fins is designed, where water flows internally through the mini-channel fins and air flows externally. Three dimensional numerical simulations are performed for large set of Reynolds number in laminar region using finite volume method for both developing flows. The dimensions of mini-channel fins are varied for several aspect ratios such as 1, 1.33, 2 and 4. Constant temperature (T) boundary condition is applied at heat sink base. Channel fluid temperature, pressure drop are analyzed to obtain best cooling option in the present study. It has been observed that as the aspect ratio of the channel decreases Nusselt number decreases while pressure drop increases. However, Nusselt number increases with increase in Reynolds number.