Numerical investigation on the flow and heat transfer performances of a novel microchannel heat sink arranged with inclined pin fins

The advancement of microelectronics technology has led to an increased demand for heat dissipation in devices. In response to this challenge, microchannel heat sinks (MCHS) have been introduced as a viable solution. The heat dissipation capabilities of MCHS can be enhanced by adopting pin fins, which serve to augment the solid-liquid contact area and disrupt the fluid boundary layer. Most research on MCHSs with pin fins has concentrated on vertical pin fin configurations, with a comparatively limited investigation into inclined pin fins. To further enhance the thermal performance of MCHS with pin fins, this study presents a novel MCHS with inclined pin fins (MCHS-IPF). The flow and heat transfer characteristics under steady-state conditions were analyzed using three-dimensional numerical simulations. Additionally, geometric optimization was conducted on the tilt angle (θ: −30° to 30°, excluding 0°) and the secondary flow channel width ratio (β) to achieve improved overall performance. The results show that the MCHS-IPF significantly enhances thermal dissipation capability compared to a conventional MCHS with vertical pin fins (MCHS-VPF). As the tilt angle remains constant, the heat dissipation capacity of MCHS-IPF improves with an increase in β. The MCHS-IPF with β = 0.6 and θ = −30° at Re = 600 shows a notable enhancement of 57.7% in the Nusselt number compared to the MCHS-VPF. This MCHS-IPF also demonstrates superior overall performance in this study, achieving a maximum Performance Evaluation Criteria of 1.53, thereby establishing itself as the optimal structure.