Numerical and Experimental Studies on Pressure Drop and Performance Index of an Aluminum Microchannel Heat Sink

Both numerical and experimental methods were used to investigate the pressure drop and performance index of an aluminum microchannel heat sink. CFD-ACE⁺ package, based on the finite volume method, was applied to solve heat transfer and flow characteristics of the microchannel heat sink. Simulation of overall microchannel heat sink such as the one done in this study has seldom been seen in the literature. For all cases done in this research, a range of pressure drop from 1761 to 4184 Pa has been determined for a microchannel heat sink including ten channels with each channel having a rectangular cross-section, a width of 500 μm, a depth of 210 gym, and a corresponding hydraulic diameter of 296 μm together with the mass flow rates varying from 0.2 to 0.4 g/s. Besides, the performance index of 10.7 W/kPa was achieved for the mass flow rate of 0.4 g/s. The results obtained from numerical simulations and those obtained from experimental data were in good agreement for the microchannel heat sink under consideration. The maximum percentage error for pressure drop was less than 7.2%, and the maximum percentage difference between the two results for heat transfer was less than 5.5%.