Aluminum nitride as an alternative ceramic for fabrication of microchannel heat exchangers: A numerical study

Advances in micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) necessitate utilizing efficient types of materials which are capable of dissipating high heat transfer rates. Aluminum nitride (AlN) as a member of advanced ceramics family, offers remarkable thermal conductivity which makes it suitable candidate in manufacturing of special and high-tech heat exchangers. The present work aims to investigate the application of a micro-sized heat exchanger made of AlN. According to the performed numerical simulations using Comsol Multiphysics, AlN made heat exchanger showed remarkable heat transfer enhancement of 59%, compared to the Al2O3 made one. Such a considerable improvement can be attributed to the higher thermal conductivity of AlN in comparison with Al2O3. The effectiveness of the heat exchangers were calculated for both AlN and Al2O3 made heat exchangers, and a 26% improvement was observed using aluminum nitride.