Experimental and numerical investigations on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of integrated U-shape micro heat pipe array with rectangular pin fins

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering Vol. 168; p. 114640
• Main Authors: Xu, YueRong, Fan, HongMing, Shao, BoXuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 05.03.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Air cooling; Air flow; Arrays; CAD; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer aided design; Cooling rate; Flow characteristics; Flow velocity; Fluid flow; Friction; Heat pipes; Heat resistance; Heat sinks; Heat transfer; Heat transfer characteristic; Micro heat pipe array; Novel heat sink; Operating temperature; Pin fin; Pin fins; Pipes; Power consumption; Power management; Reynolds number; Thermal resistance; Three dimensional models; Wind tunnels; Micro heat pipe array; Air cooling; Novel heat sink; Pin fin; Heat transfer characteristic
• ISSN: 1359-4311; 1873-5606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114640

•A new type of heat pipe is called micro heat pipe array (MHPA).•A new air-cooled CPU heat sink design which based on the finned U-shape MHAP.•Study presents the effectiveness of the U-MHPA-RPF heat sink at a rage of air flow rates and heating powers. A novel air-cooled CPU heat sink integrated U-shape micro heat pipe array with rectangular pin fins (U-MHPA-RPF) is proposed. The heat transfer and friction characteristics of U-MHPA-RPF were investigated by the wind tunnel experimental set up systematically. The results show that the operating temperature can be reduced easily below 75 °C when the input power reached 130 W. The simplified three-dimensional model was established in ANSYS ICEM, the conjugate heat transfer from the CPU to the air were computed numerically in ANSYS Fluent for a range of air flow at different heating powers. Verified by the experimental results, the thermal resistance of each part of the heat sink is discussed. The contact thermal resistance is the major component, the advantage of the U-MHPA-RPF heat sink is proved by the lower values of the thermal resistance of the heat sink. By changing the Reynolds number, it is found that the cooling device could be operated at small air flow rates to reduce fan power consumption and noise.