The experimental study of the heat ransfer performance of a zigzag-serpentine microchannel heat sink

In this paper, a zigzag-serpentine microchannel heat sink (ZSMHS) consisting of a zigzag microchannel and a serpentine microchannel is designed and manufactured to study the heat transfer and hydraulic performance through the experiment. The overall dimension of the ZSMHS is 80 x 70 x 3.1 mm (length x width x height). The DI water is used as the working fluid, and the whole bottom surface of the ZSMHS is heated. The zigzag microchannel with four different angles (i.e., 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees and 90 degrees) are studied to investigate the heat transfer performance of the structure. In the experiment, all the ZSMHSs have the same serpentine microchannel. The pumping power, friction factor, pressure drop, heat transfer coefficient, thermal resistance, temperature uniformity and the goodness factor of the investigated heat sinks are studied in detail. It found that the lowest pressure drop, the lowest friction coefficient and thermal resistance of the ZSMHS are obtained when the incidence angle is 30 degrees. However, the best surface temperature uniformity is obtained when the incidence angle is 45 degrees. The serpentine microchannel improves the hydraulic performance of the ZSMHS, compared with conventional heat sinks which have no serpentine microchannel.

Automated summary

The paper presents a zigzag-serpentine microchannel heat sink (ZSMHS) designed to study heat transfer and hydraulic performance through experiments. Different angles of the zigzag microchannel were investigated, with 30 degrees providing the lowest pressure drop, friction coefficient, and thermal resistance. The serpentine microchannel improved the hydraulic performance of the ZSMHS.