Parametrical Study on the Capillary Flowing Characteristics of the Parallel Microchannel Array

Abstract

The flow mechanism within a silicon-based micro heat sink plays a crucial role in two-phase thermal dissipation technology. In this study, the effect of geometrical properties on the flow behavior within a silicon-based array parallel microchannel as the evaporator of a silicon-based micro loop heat pipe (s-mLHP) is experimentally and numerically investigated. Here, three arrayed microchannels with different aspect ratio (AR) parameters (depth of 180 μm and AR of 6, 9, and 15) are specially fabricated. A visual experiment platform is established to observe and measure capillary properties of microchannels characterized by the suction distance. In addition, a validated numerical model (the maximum deviation less than 38.3%) is applied to simulate the flow characteristics of microchannels with different ARs. Numerical solutions show that the microchannel with ARs taken between 3 and 4 achieves the best capillary pumping performance within the studied range (suction distance up to 0.8 mm), which provides a theoretical basis for further exploration of silicon-based microchannel array with the optimal flow and thermal performance.

Keywords

• microchannels
• aspect ratio (ar)
• capillary flow
• suction performance
• visual observation