Numerical study on thermal and hydraulic performances of a hybrid manifold microchannel with bifurcations for electronics cooling

The rapid growth in heat flux of electronic devices demands effective and energy-saving cooling solutions. A hybrid manifold microchannel (MMC) with bifurcations is proposed in this study to improve thermal performance. Flow and heat transfer characteristics of the hybrid MMC are numerically investigated. Deionized water is used as the coolant and the Reynolds number ranges from 20 to 200. The effects of geometric parameters such as bifurcation length, bifurcation width, secondary channel width, and the ratio of manifold inlet and outlet are studied respectively. The results show that the thermal performance can be improved due to the additional heat transfer area brought by the bifurcation. The shape of the bifurcation was optimized to enhance the overall performance, and the best inlet-to-outlet ratio of the manifold is found to be 3. The thermal resistance of the optimized MMC can be reduced by 43.2 % when compared to the common one at the same pumping power. Besides, a heat flux of 2500 W/cm2 can be removed by the hybrid MMC at a maximum temperature rise of 60 K. Compared to other ones, the proposed hybrid MMC possesses a higher cooling coefficient of performance (COP), and it is proven to be a more energy-saving solution for electronics cooling as the COP of the hybrid MMC can reach beyond 10,000 at the heat flux of 1500 W/cm2.