NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF BLOCKED MICROCHANNEL HEAT SINK CONFIGURATIONS WITH POROUS FINS

The fast evolution of electronic devices and focus on their miniaturization and compactness, is increasing the demand of more efficient cooling technologies. Microchannel Heat Sinks (MCHSs) are a key technology for small size electronics cooling with still a great margin of improvement. Therefore, the current study investigates the implementation of blocked MCHS with porous fins with the aim of improving the crossflow in the porous media and, with that, improve the thermal performance. Test cases with inlet and outlet alternately blockage of 25%, 50% and 100%, are numerically studied and the results are compared with conventional MCHSs with solid and porous fins. The various test cases analyzed in terms of velocity and temperature distribution, pressure drop, thermal resistance, Nusselt number and Performance Evaluation Factor (PEF). The findings of the current work show that the implementation of the blocks along with porous fins effectively decreases the thermal resistance and enhances the Nusselt number. However, the presence of the blocks leads to an undesired increase of the pressure drop which, in turn, increases the friction factor and negatively impacts the combined thermal-hydraulic performance.