Work

Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Performance of Turbulence Enhancement Configurations for Galinstan Based Mini-Channel Cooling

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The escalating heat flux density and temperature in highly integrated microelectronic devices adversely affect their reliability and service life, making efficient thermal management crucial for stable operation. This study utilizes Galinstan liquid metal as the coolant to investigate the flow and heat transfer performance in microchannel heat sinks incorporating various turbulator configurations. It is revealed that for microchannels featuring expanded regions, turbulators that create highly symmetric flow fields are preferable due to improved flow distribution. The long teardrop-shaped turbulator provides the best heat transfer performance among all the investigated heat transfer enhancement structures. And this turbulator yields a 13.8-25.9% higher enhancement effectiveness compared to other configurations, at the expense of a 28-41% increase in pressure loss. However, the sudden cross-sectional expansion in the expanded region causes a significant reduction in fluid velocity. Consequently, microchannels with expanded regions and turbulators exhibit a higher bottom surface temperature than the original, straight microchannels, leading to an overall deterioration in heat transfer performance.

Source: Micromachines

DOI: 10.3390/mi17010083

Authors: Fajing Li, Junxi Han, Zhifeng Wang, Yi Dai, Peizhu Chen

Institutions: Guangzhou Railway Polytechnic, Foshan University, City University of Macau

Language: English

Topic: Heat Transfer and Optimization

Subfield: Mechanical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,534

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Guangdong Science and Technology Department, Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province