Numerical study on heat transfer characteristics of a pin–fin staggered manifold microchannel heat sink

Manifold microchannel (MMC) heat sink is an efficient thermal management solution for high heat flux electronic devices. A pin–fin staggered manifold microchannel (PFSMMC) heat sink is proposed to enhance the heat dissipation performance of the MMC heat sink in this paper. The heat transfer performance of the PFSMMC heat sink, the rectangular manifold microchannel (RMMC) and the pin–fin manifold microchannel (PFMMC) are compared by single-phase flow numerical simulation. The results show that the PFSMMC heat sink has better heat transfer capability and more uniform heating surface temperature. The effect of staggered divider length–width ratio on the heat transfer characteristics of PFSMMC heat sink is analyzed. The maximum heating surface temperature of PFSMMC heat sink has a valley with the increase of length–width ratio. The length–width ratio corresponding to the valley value of the maximum heating surface temperature is about 0.32. In addition, the heat characteristics of PFSMMC with different non-uniform heat sources are studied. The results show that the heating surface temperature uniformity deteriorates with the increase of length–width ratio, but the maximum heating surface temperature is lower at the length–width ratio of 0.32.