Abstract
Experimental investigations were performed to quantify the thermal and hydraulic performances of an inter-connected counter flow mini-channel heat sink under laminar flow regime. The aspect ratio (height/width) and the hydraulic diameter of the mini-channel were 0.33 and 750 μm respectively. Water was used as the working fluid, and a constant heat flux of 120000 W/m2 was applied on the bottom surface of the heat sink. To enable transverse flow between two counter flow streams by utilizing pressure difference, two inter-connectors were made on the middle wall. The height and width of both inter-connectors were the same as the mini-channel. Bottom surface temperature, Nusselt number (Nu), thermal resistance, and friction factor were calculated to address the effect of the inter-connectors on the overall thermal-hydraulic performance of the heat sink. The results showed that at low Reynolds number (Re), inter-connectors affect the heat transfer performance adversely while substantial heat transfer augmentation was achieved at high Re. Additionally, for all of the test range, a significant reduction of friction factor was achieved by employing transverse flow.