Thermal - Hydraulic Performance Modelling of a Sine - Shaped Wavy Channel for Electronics Cooling Applications

The optimum design of corrugated wavy channels used in mini-channel/micro-channel heat sink applications for minimum pumping power (i.e., minimum pressure drop) and efficient heat transfer is a great challenge in terms of energy savings point of view. In this paper, a commercial solver based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) was used for developing a two dimensional numerical model for a sine-shaped corrugated channel. The effect of channel geometry(spacing ratio epsilon and waviness parameter gamma) on the friction coefficient f, average Nusselt number Nu(av), pumping power P.P. and goodness factor G has been carried out for various numerical models at different Reynolds numbers between 100 and 1339. The Nu(av) parameter clearly increased at Re > 500 with the increasing of gamma from 0.024 to 0.21, but with the expense of a higher friction factor.