Heat transfer performance of lotus-type porous copper heat sink with liquid GaInSn coolant

Lotus-type porous copper is a new kind of micro-channel structure with long cylindrical pores (channels) aligned in one direction. It can be used as a heat sink for cooling of high-power electronic components. Through experiments and Fluent-3D numerical simulations, the heat transfer performance of a lotus-type porous copper heat sink with a liquid GaInSn coolant was systematically studied under different structural and hydrodynamic parameters conditions. The experimental results showed that this kind of heat sink has an excellent heat transfer coefficient, as high as 9.6 W/cm(2) K, only under a fixed pressure drop as low as 17.5 kPa. The simulation showed that optimal porosity and pore diameter existed for the heat sink to conduct a maximal equivalent heat transfer coefficient. For the GaInSn coolant, the optimal porosity and pore diameter were about 45-55% and 0.7-0.9 mm, respectively. However, at the same pressure drop conditions the optimal pore diameter for the water coolant was smaller (0.1-0.2 mm) and the optimal porosity was the same as that for the GaInSn coolant. Overall, the simulated heat transfer coefficients and structural parameters window agreed well with the experimental results. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.