Numerical study on hot spots thermal management in low pressure gradient distribution narrow microchannel embedded with pin fins

With the rapid development of high-performance electronic chips, chip hot spot management has become a prominent problem. Aimed at investigating the hot spots thermal management of gradient distribution narrow microchannel embedded with pin fins (MPFC), the effects of hot spot location, Reynolds number, hot spot area and heat flux on the chip surface were numerically studied. The maximum surface temperature on the chip does not change significantly with the change of hot spot location. However, with a Reynolds number of 281–844, the average temperature of MPFC-BP48, MPFC-BP2244, MPFC-BP264 at Hotspot 1 decreases by 4.6–10.8 K compared with that of MPFC-BP, but they show a significantly decrement of 7.7–19.6 K at Hotspot 2, indicating that the three improved gradient distribution microchannel embedded with pin fins exhibit better temperature uniformity and heat transfer capacity. In addition, an increase in hot spot area brings a temperature increment at hot spot, especially in MPFC-BP which has exceed the maximum temperature of 358 K, it is found that the embedded with pin fins is beneficial to enhanced the local heat transfer capacity. Furthermore, under different heat flux, MPFC-BP has exceeded the maximum temperature with the hot spot heat flux of 800 W/cm2, while MPFC-BP48, MPFC-BP2244, MPFC-BP264 can be kept below 358 K with the hot spot heat flux of 1000 W/cm2. This study optimizes the heat sink structure and has great significance for hot spot thermal management of chips. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd