Microchannel with Waviness at Selective Locations for Liquid Cooling of Microelectromechanical Devices

Miniaturized electronic components require effective heat transfer mechanism to dissipate heat with less surface area available for convective heat dissipation. Liquid cooling system with in- built microchannel is one of the feasible options. The new idea proposed in the present work is incorporation of waviness at selective locations in the microchannel. This method enhances heat transfer as well as maintains uniform surface temperature. Three-dimensional numerical simulations are carried out using ANSYS Fluent 15. Water is taken as the working fluid. Present numerical results of base case with plane wall are validated using published experimental and numerical results available in literature. Systematic study has been conducted by varying the flow Reynolds number and design parameters viz., wave amplitude and wavelength of the waviness on bottom wall. The computational results are presented in the form of Nusselt number, pressure drop and friction factor. Performance of the wavy wall microchannel is better with short wavelengths. In the present configuration of rectangular microchannel, wave amplitude of 0.2Dh with wavelength of 3Dh shows optimum performance. Moreover, selective waviness on bottom wall shows better performance with uniform surface temperature.