Experimental Investigation of Active Microfluidic Cooling Solution to Processor Chip

Heat sinks with microchannels were being studied as a viable thermal management option for electronic equipment. The total heat transfer characteristics of a microchannel heat sink are revealed based on fluid flow characteristics inside the microchannels along with convective heat transfer, both of which are controlled by channel design and flow configuration. The aim of the present investigation was to test the microchannel heat sink with Z-type flow configuration, using nanofluid as a promising solution to chip cooling technology. Experimental investigations were carried out to assess the impact of varying nanoparticle concentrations of  with water as the base fluid on heat transfer and fluid flow performance on effective heat flux removal. The heat spreader of the Intel® CoreTM i۷ microprocessor chip was used as the microchannel test section, after separating it from the chip. A microchannel heat sink was then fabricated by cutting inlet and outlet ports and manifolds with ten parallel microchannels. Cartridge heaters were used to provide a thermal load with a constant heat flux of , equivalent to the thermal design power of the actual processor chip. For the safe operation of the processor chip against performance degradation, experiments were conducted with varied Reynolds numbers in the range ۱۰۰۰ ≤ Re ≤ ۱۸۰۰ to achieve the maximum temperature of the heat sink below the critical limit. Thermal IR imaging has been carried out to assess the temperature field. The Nusselt number and convective heat transfer coefficient exhibit a favourable improvement upon the addition of nanoparticles of about ۲۵%, a clear benefit of having hydrodynamically and thermally developing flow fields. Finally, the Nusselt number and friction factor correlations were proposed. The accuracy of the developed correlations for the average Nusselt number and friction factor were within ±۱۰% and ±۸%, respectively.  The presented research provides in-depth knowledge about the capability of Z-type microchannel heat sink with multi-microchannels for electronic processor chip cooling and its consequences for conditioning monitoring of forthcoming electronic gadgets.

کلیدواژه ها:

Microchannel heat sink ، Nanofluid ، Z type parallel flow ، Heat transfer ، Nusselt number ، Reynolds number