Wang Shouyuan,Wang Zhiqiang. Numerical Study of Counterflow Microchannels with Non-Uniform Ribs[J]. Journal of Refrigeration,XXXX,XX(XX):1-7. DOI: 10.12465/issn.0253-4339.20260203002.
Numerical Study of Counterflow Microchannels with Non-Uniform Ribs
The formation mechanism of high-temperature zones in counterflow microchannel heat sinks was investigated through computational fluid dynamics numerical simulations. The following two novel structures were proposed: an outlet top-rib structure and a channel center top-rib structure. The results showed that the inlet effect of edge channels and transverse heat transfer between adjacent channels were the identified as fundamental causes of the parallelogram-shaped high-temperature zones. The uniform bottom rib structure enhanced overall heat transfer; however, the parallelogram-shaped high-temperature zones still persisted. For edge channels, the outlet top rib structure weakened heat transfer at the inlet region and strengthened heat transfer at the outlet region, thereby modifying the morphology of the parallelogram-shaped high-temperature zones and decreasing the maximum wall temperature difference by 33.3%. The channel center top rib structure enhanced heat transfer in the high-temperature zones at the channel center, further reducing the maximum wall temperature difference by 58.3%. Furthermore, it achieved the same average wall temperature as the uniform bottom-rib structure at a low flow rate (1.64 g/s) and outlet top-rib structure at a large flow rate (2 g/s), while reducingwall temperature difference by 64.8% and 47.2%, and pressure drop by 9.1% and 12.0%, respectively.
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