Numerical investigation of heat transfer enhancement in wavy microchannel with tangential branched secondary channels

Microchannel (MC) heat sinks have been extensively researched and used for thermal management. Wavy MC heat sinks and wavy MC with 45(o) branched secondary channel heat sinks are shown in the literature to have superior heat transfer enhancement capabilities than straight MCs, with more pressure drop as penalty. To minimize the pressure drop, a new design is introduced in this paper by altering the wavy MC, with tangential branched secondary channels, at peaks and troughs of the wavy MC. Numerical investigation is carried out in the Reynolds number range of 100 to 300 with constant heat flux wall boundary condition. A simple parametric study on the secondary channel width is also carried out. Wavy MC with TBSC, having secondary channel width as half of the primary channel, is found to have the best combination of heat transfer and pressure drop performance, compared with wavy MC heat sinks and wavy MC with 45(o) branched secondary channel heat sinks. The flow phenomenon that leads to such performance is carefully analyzed and discussed in detail in this paper.