Numerical Simulation of Combined Microscale Effects on Convective Heat Transfer in Single-Phase Flows

Abstract

Convective heat transfer through parallel-plate microchannels heat sink is often encountered in electronics cooling, chemical and bio-engineering industries, military applications, and energy conversion. Heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannels has been studied extensively during the past two decades, mainly as a result of the search for efficient methods to cool electronic devices. Since the pioneering works of Tuckerman and Pease in early 1980s [1], microchannels have revealed their capabilities of removing high heat fluxes in very compact exchangers. Along with being compact in size, microchannel heat sinks have the added benefit of providing high heat transfer coefficients. This performance is based on the premise that the heat transfer coefficient can be inversely proportional to the hydraulic diameter of the channel. This is also related to the fact that the surface/volume ratio is definitely higher in micro systems. In particular, because of confinement, the friction of the fluid induces heating release likely to modify the thermal field [2]. © 2016 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.