Accepted Manuscript

Research Paper
Header design approaches for mini-channel heatsinks using analytical and numerical methods
Muhammad Saeed, Man-Hoe Kim
PII:
DOI:
Reference:

S1359-4311(16)31673-8
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.09.069
ATE 9094

To appear in:

Applied Thermal Engineering

Received Date:
Revised Date:
Accepted Date:

12 May 2016
10 September 2016
13 September 2016

Please cite this article as: M. Saeed, M-H. Kim, Header design approaches for mini-channel heatsinks using
analytical and numerical methods, Applied Thermal Engineering (2016), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.applthermaleng.2016.09.069

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers
we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and
review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process
errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Header design approaches for mini-channel heatsinks using analytical and numerical
methods

Muhammad Saeed, Man-Hoe Kim

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea

ABSTRACT
Flow misdistribution that severely affects the thermal and hydraulic performance of heatsinks is caused by
inefficient shapes of collector and distributor headers. In the current study, an analytical model has been
developed and tested numerically ensuring uniform flow distribution of coolant within the heatsink channels
while keeping the distributor and collector header sizes minimum. The mathematical model was coded in
Matlab and effects of the different geometric parameters on pressure drop in the header and on the size of the
header have been reported. Proposed header shapes for different configurations of channel geometry were tested
numerically using a commercial code ANSYS-CFX. Moreover, the thermal and hydraulic performance of the
heatsink with proposed header geometries has been reported for different configurations of channel geometries.
Also, with the intention of estimating the effectiveness of the header design, thermal and hydraulic performance
of heatsinks with optimized headers were also compared with the performance of the heatsinks with conventional
header designs
Keywords:

header design, mini-channel, heatsink, flow maldistribution, conjugate heat transfer, electronic

cooling

NOMENCLATURE
area [

aspect ratio of channel

specific heat capacity

hydraulic diameter
height
thermal conductivity

Corresponding Author Tel.: +82-53-950-5576; Fax: +82-53-950-6550.

E-mail addresses: manhoe.kim@knu.ac.kr (M. -H. Kim), saeed@knu.ac.kr (M. Saeed)

length
LPM

litre per minute

maldistribution factor
mass flow rate
header shape parameter
total number of fins
Nusselt number
pressure
pressure drop
flow rate
thermal resistance [

Reynolds number
Surface normal
fin spacing
temperature
fin thickness
velocity vector
width of the header segment

GREEK SYMBOLS
aspect ratio of channel/segment
dynamic viscosity
Density

SUB AND SUPER SCRIPTS

base plate
collector header
channel
distributor header
fin

fluid
Interface plate
segment/channel
maximum value
protrusion
sink
solid
total

1 INTRODUCTION
Last two decades have witnessed a sudden increase in the performance of electronics. Not only are todays
electronics faster and more powerful than ever they are also more condensed and compact. However, this
miniaturization comes with a catch i.e., an ever increasing heat flux. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the
cooling technology today is expected to be accordingly efficient in order to combat the high amounts of heat
dissipation. This requisite has stemmed in the pursuit of a reliable cooling method and consequently many
cooling technologies are being investigated. Among various proposals mini and microchannel heatsinks [1] are
one of the more widely held and effective options with high prospects due to their high heat transfer coefficient
and small size. Recently, a number of studies were made to understand and optimize the thermal and hydraulic
performance of microchannel heatsink [2][4]. In spite of high heat removing capabilities, application of
microchannel heatsinks in compact computers is limited due to their need of high pumping power for continuous
circulation of coolant [5]. In contrast, mini-channel heatsinks are a good substitute because of their lower
pressure head requirements. Considerable research has been conducted lately to improve the heat removing
capabilities of mini-channel heatsinks for microprocessors [5], [6] including a few commercially available
heatsinks [7], [8].
Mini and microchannel heatsinks consist of a large number of parallel channels with the purpose of increasing
the area of contact between fluids and solids to enhancing heat transfer. These channels are provided with
distributor and collector headers, one on each side for the provision and removal of coolant. Despite the fact that
a lot of research is available in literature solely conducted to optimize the channel geometry of mini and
microchannel heatsinks, design optimization of distributor and collector headers to improve flow maldistribution
3

is hard to find. The thermal hydraulic performance of mini and microchannel heatsinks is greatly affected by the
configuration of channels and headers. In particular, the flow maldistribution within a heatsink significantly
affects the performance characteristics associated with heatsink [9][14]. Kim [9] investigated the effect of
header shapes on the flow distribution in heatsinks and reported that thermal performance of a heatsink is
strongly dependent on the shape of headers and the flow Reynolds number. Chein and Chen [10] numerically
investigated the effect of multiple inlet/outlet arrangements on the thermal and hydraulic performance of
microchannel heatsink. They suggested that non-uniform temperature distribution on the base of the heatsink was
caused by flow maldistribution. Likewise, the effects of channel and header geometry on the temperature
distribution in microchannel heatsink under non-uniform heat flux conditions were researched by Cho et al. [11],
[12]. Similarly, Kumaran et al [13] performed numerical and experimental studies to predict the effect of header
design and inlet/outlet port configurations on flow maldistribution. Liu and Yu [14] suggested that mini baffles
fabrication at inlet of each channel results in improvement of the flow within the heatsink. Saeed and Kim [15]
investigated thermal and hydraulic performance of mini-channel heatsinks by varying different geometrical
parameters of the heatsink geometry.

They reported that local heat transfer coefficient associated with

conventional distributor and collector headers of mini-channel heatsink is very low and they occupy around 30%
of the total volume of heatsinks. Low local heat transfer coefficient and maldistribution linked with the headers
in turn reduce the overall thermal and hydraulic performance of heatsinks.
It can be concluded from the above analysis that the performance of heatsinks can be severely deteriorated by the
flow maldistribution caused by improper header design. In spite of such vital requirement for an upgraded and
capable header design that will improve the flow distribution within the heatsink, there has been very little
research in this field. Therefore, in the current study, a mathematical model is developed for a compact watercooled mini and microchannel heatsinks intended to finalize the shape of distributor and collector headers
ensuring uniform flow distribution in channels all the while keeping header sizes minimum. Water cooled mini
and microchannel heat sink for electronic equipment are designed to maintain the temperature of semiconductor
junction within its safe operating limit (

), that is well below the boiling temperature of water.

Moreover, pump size is restricted by minimizing the coolant pressure drop across the heatsink via confining the
flow to laminar regime [1]. Thus, the mathematical model developed in the current study targets laminar and
single phase flows in the mini and microchannel heatsinks. The mathematical model was coded using fixed
point iteration method in Matlab and effects of header shape parameter

variation on header size, header

pressure drop and coolant flow rate are reported. Later on, finalized header geometries through the mathematical

model were tested numerically using a commercial code ANSYS-CFX. The thermal and hydraulic performance
of heatsinks with proposed header geometries is reported for different configurations of mini-channel geometries.
In order to estimate the effectiveness of the header design, thermal and hydraulic performance of heatsinks with
proposed headers were also compared with the performance of the heatsinks with conventional header designs.

2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL
In this section a mathematical model is developed to design distributor and collector headers for different
configurations of water-cooled mini and microchannel heatsinks ensuring uniform flow distribution through
channels. It is based on one-dimensional flow calculations and limited to laminar and single phase flows only.
The model was developed on the analogy of an equivalent electrical circuit [16].The fluid flow rate ( ) through
the parallel channels of the heatsink is analogous to electric current
parallel. In the same way, pressure drop
are comparable to potential drop

passing through resistors connected in

in the channel and resistance to flow

and electrical resistance

caused by frictional forces

in an electric circuit respectively. Hence, in

the current study, flow rates through the different channels in the heatsink were controlled by managing the flow
resistances of all flow paths by applying Ohms law.

For a better understanding of flow paths and their corresponding flow resistances, the geometry of the heatsink
was divided into three parts as shown in Fig. 1, i.e., 1: distributor header, 2: flow channels and 3: collector
header. Both distributor and collector headers were further divided into
channels bounded by
path,

segments, where N is number of

fins. For any set of two consecutive flow path, i.e.,

flow channel along with

collector segments forms

distributor segment form

flow path and

flow path and

flow
channel with

flow path as shown in Fig. 1. Furthermore, resembling the current passing

through parallel circuit of resistors, flow through the channels can be controlled by adjusting the frictional
resistance of the flow paths. For the flow through two consecutive flow paths (

and

, the

pressure drop could be written as follows.

Pressure drops for distributor and collector segments described in Eq. (2) can be calculated using the procedure
described in [1].
5

Pressure drop calculations for distributor and collector header were based on the assumption of a fully developed
flow condition. Eq. (3) represents the pressure drop in

Here

and

segment of distributor header

are hydraulic diameter

respectively corresponding to

, mean velocity and length of segment

segment of distributor. The term

is the Poiseuille number ( ) that

depends on the geometry of the channel. Assuming a fully developed flow in a rectangular cross-section of the
channel Poiseuille number

) can be calculated from the correlation [1].

Here aspect ratio

is the ratio of segment height and width of channel such that

corresponding to

segment of the distributor header.

Similarly, pressure drop in

is always less than 1

segment of the collector header could be written as

As high-pressure gradients are associated with mini and microchannel, therefore lengths of the channels are kept
small so as to minimize the pressure drop in the mini and microchannel heatsinks. As a result, the length of
channels where flow is in developing stage
length

forms a noticeable portion of the total channel

. In this case, noticeable effect of pressure drop due to developing boundary layer cannot be ignored.

Hence, the pressure drop model presented in Eq. (6) also includes the additional term accommodating the
pressure drop caused by developing flow in the mini and microchannel.

The first term of pressure drop model corresponds to pressure drop for fully developed flow, while the second
term in the model incorporates the additional pressure drop due to developing flow. Poiseuille number

in the first term was calculated using Eq. (4) as described before while, Hagenbachs factor

was

computed using relation developed by Steinke and Kandlikar [17] as given by Eq. (7).

Fig. 1 Schematic of the heatsink geometry

For a particular heatsink designed configuration, hydraulic diameter and length of channels is same. Thus, it
could be deduced from the Eqs. (6 and 7) that

. Incorporating

along with Eq. (3

and 5) into Eq. 2. It should also be note here that segment length

and channel height

are known values for a particular heatsink configuration.

In Eq. (8)

and

are cross-sectional area and flow rate corresponding to respective segment of the collector

header. If

is the total flow rate entering the heatsink containing

number of channels then by applying

condition of uniform flow through each channel the following can be deduced .
Flow rate through each channel

Flow rate through

segment of collector header

Flow rate through

segment of distributor header

After substituting the values flow of rates into Eq. (8) it could be written as

It could be seen from Eq. (9) and definition of terms

and

and

. Solving Eq. (9) for two unknown terms (

solutions. To avoid this situation,

was solved for one unknown

that the unknown terms in the equation are

and

) leads to an infinite number of

was computed for a particular value of

as illustrated in Fig. 2. The term

using Eq. 10 and then Eq. (9)

in Eq. (10) defines the shape of distributor

header and it is termed as header shape parameter. Linear, concave and convex shapes of the distributor header
can be achieved by setting

, and

respectively.

The value of width of first distributor segment (

value of the width of
the width of

header segment (

header segment (

was kept constant

for all simulation, the

) was updated after each iteration. Through the iteration procedure

) was finalized to achieve minimum area of the collector header under

imposed condition of uniform distribution. Once the collector header profile was finalized, pressure drop in
header and channels was computed using Eq. (11).

Start

Input heatsink geometry (Table 1)

Header shape parameter =
Distributor header profile = Eq. (10)
Flow rate =

=
=
=

Solve Eq. (9) using fixed point

iteration to calculate

No
Yes
Yes

Yes
No

No
Pressure drop in headers
Pressure drop in heat sink channels
Area of headers

Post processing

End

Fig. 2 Iterative algorithm

10

3 NUMERICAL MODEL AND COMPUTATIONAL DOMAIN

The mathematical model described in the previous section was employed to finalize shapes and sizes of
distributor and collector headers under the condition of uniform flow distribution. As the model is based on onedimensional flow theory of fluid flow, thus three-dimensional characteristics of fluid flow are absent in the
model. Therefore, to understand additional effects associated with the three-dimensional fluid flow and heat
transfer using different geometric parameters (e.g. fin thickness , fin spacing and order of profiles for distributor
header etc.), a three-dimensional fluid-solid conjugate heat transfer model was engaged to solve fluid flow and
heat transfer for the heatsink shown in the Fig. 3. Major dimensions and geometric details of the mini-channel
heatsink with the conventional and optimized header used for the current study are shown in Fig. 3 and Table 1.
Numerical simulations were carried out for all configurations listed in Table 1 for both conventional and
optimized header shapes to compare pressure drop, heat transfer coefficient and flow maldistribution.

3.1 GOVERNING EQUATIONS AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Following assumptions were implemented in the numerical model for the current study: (1) the fluid flow
through the heatsink is steady state, single phase, incompressible and laminar; (2) body force such as gravitation
force are ignored; (3) material properties of fluid and solid domain are independent of temperature and pressure;
(4) heat losses to atmosphere are ignored; (5) contact thermal resistance between heater and heatsink is ignored;
(6) interface losses between fluid and solid domain are ignored. With above-given assumptions, governing
equation [18] for fluid flow and heat transfer could be written as given below:
Continuity, momentum and energy equation for fluid domain

Energy equation for solid domain

11

To solve the set of governing equations (12-14), a commercial code ANSYS-CFX was employed. At the inlet and outlet of
the fluid domain, mass flow inlet and pressure outlet conditions were imposed respectively. Water inlet temperature was kept
Conditions at the fluid-solid interface were imposed as given by Eq. (16).

A constant heat flux corresponding to the heat source of 325 W was enforced at the bottom wall of small extrusion as given
by Eq. (17). Adiabatic conditions were imposed on all other wall boundaries of the fluid and solid domains as defined by Eq.
(18). All other numerical details and validation study for the computational model used in the current study can be seen in the
previous work [15].

Outlet

Collector header

Collector header

Outlet

28
.7
m
m

Inlet

Distributor header

Fins
Base

Inlet

Distributor header

28.7 mm

Fig. 3 Heatsink geometries with conventional and optimized distributor and collector headers

12

Table 1 Different geometric configurations used for current numerical study

Configuration

1
2

A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D

1.5
1
0.5
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.2

1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4

3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0

Flow rate
[LPM ]
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50
0.5,0.75,1.0,1.25,1.50

Material

Copper
Copper
Copper
Copper
Copper
Copper
Copper
Copper

22
28
37
46
46
55
69
92

3.2 MESH INDEPENDENCE

Both fluid and solid domains were discretized using ANSYS ICEM-CFD with hexahedral elements. To avoid
interpolation losses, 1:1 node connection at fluid-solid interface boundary was ensured by employing the same
topology for both fluid and solid domains. Meshes of the fluid and solid domain are shown in Fig. 4. Mesh
independence for the current study was carried out using four meshes M1, M2, M3 and M4 (Table. 2) of
geometry 1D (Table 1). All four meshes were simulated using same computational resources and boundary
conditions. Computed base temperature

, average computational time per iterations and memory allocated by

the solver were compared (Table 2) to work out the optimized mesh. The difference in the computed values of
base temperature

for mesh M3 and M4 was found 0.03 % but memory allocation size and average

computation time per iteration for mesh M4 was almost two times in comparison with mesh M3. Consequently,
due to lesser consumption of memory, smaller computational time and similar computation results, mesh M3 was
opted for all the other simulations conducted for current numerical study.
Table 2 Data for mesh independence study

Mesh

M1

M2

M3

M4

Element size (Near wall) [mm]

0.04

0.035

0.015

0.01

Element size (Maximum) [mm]

0.40

0.35

0.25

0.2

709,002

1429260

4807370

7952120

350

898

12143

25023

7.55

38.36

84.05

142.08

Total number of Nodes

Memory allocated [MB]
Average computation time per
iterations [s]

13

Outlet

Fluid domain mesh

Fluid domain

Solid domain mesh

Solid domain
Inlet

Fig. 4 Mesh of fluid and solid domains

14

4 RESULTS
The current study was aimed at designing distributor and collector headers for mini-channel heatsinks using a
mathematical model (presented in section 2) under the conditions of uniform flow of the coolant and minimum
area requirements for the headers. Consequential effects of different channel configurations and distributor
header profiles were computed on the pressure drop in the headers and on the size of the headers (section 4.1).
Furthermore, heatsinks with proposed header geometries were simulated numerically to test the flow distribution
of the coolant (section 4.2). Flow maldistribution within the heatsinks was calculated through the relation given
by Eq. (19). Header pressure drop calculations computed through analytical and numerical simulations were
compared as well.

Finally, the thermal and hydraulic performance of the heatsinks with proposed design was compared to heatsinks
with conventional headers (section 4.3). Here, terminology conventional header is used for headers finalized
by studying the effect of geometrical parameters on the flow maldistribution without adopting any proper design
procedure [9], [13]. In the current study, a rectangular header design used by Saeed and Kim [15] and Jajja et al.
[8] for their numerical and experimental studies, has been used for the comparison purpose to evaluate the
effectiveness of proposed design. The thermal and hydraulic performance was determined by calculating thermal
resistance and pressure drop associated with the sink geometry. The thermal resistance of the heatsinks was
computed by the following relation [14].

4.1

ANALYTICAL RESULTS

Fig. 5 shows variation in the size of headers and pressure losses in the header with shape parameter of
distributor header
sharply (

. Pressure losses inside header for different configurations of channel geometry drop
to

) as value of

increases from 0.5 to 2.0, however with a further increase in the

value of , i.e. 3 onwards, pressure losses in the header become nearly constant. In contrast, cross-sectional area

15

of header increases swiftly (e.g.

of

to

) with the increase of , i.e., 0.5 to 3. At higher values

area increase rate slows down and becomes nearly constant for values of

change in pressure losses in the headers with

greater than 9. Fig. 6 shows

for different flow rates corresponding to a specific configuration

of channel geometry (2D, Table 1). It is clear from the figure that sensitivity of pressure loss in the header to
flow rate decreases with the decrease in the value of . Distributor profiles for four different values of

and

their corresponding collector profiles computed through analytical model for the channel configuration 1A
(Table 1) are shown in Fig. 7.

1000

2500
2000
1.0-1.5-3.0
1.0-1.0-3.0
1.0-0.5-3.0
1.0-0.2-3.0
0.8-0.2-3.0
0.6-0.2-3.0
0.4-0.2-3.0

1500
1000
500
0

10 11 12

Header pressure drop [pa]

Area of header [mm2]

3000

1.0-1.5-3.0
1.0-1.0-3.0
1.0-0.5-3.0
1.0-0.2-3.0
0.8-0.2-3.0
0.6-0.2-3.0
0.4-0.2-3.0

900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100

Header shape parameter (n)

10 11 12

Header shape parameter (n)

Fig. 5 a) Variation in the area of header with for different configurations of channel , b) Variation in pressure loss
in the header with for different
a)
b)configurations of channel

Fig. 6 Variation of pressure loss in header with n for different flow rates

16

Fins
60

Distributor header
60

n = 0.5

20
0
-20
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

-20
0

20

30
x (mm)

40

50

60

80

n = 1.5

n = 2.0
60

y (mm)

40

40

20

20

-20
0

10

100

60

y (mm)

20
0

x (mm)
80

n = 1.0

40

y (mm)

y (mm)

40

Collector header

10

20

30

40

50

60

-20
0

10

x (mm)
Fig. 7 Header design for different value of shape parameter

20

30
x (mm)

40

50

60

corresponding to channel configuration 1A

4.2 COMPARISON OF ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL RESULT

17

Since the mathematical model presented in section 2 was based on one-dimensional characteristics of flow,
three-dimensional numerical simulations were carried out (as explained in section 3). In the mathematical model
three-dimensional effects of the flow shown in Fig. 8, such as pressure losses, flow stagnation in the collector
header by the wall near the last flow channel, entrance losses and header area reduction caused by the channel
exiting flow into collector header have been ignored.

a)

Collector headers area affected by

flow exiting the channels

Nevertheless significance of the one-dimensional

b)
Entrance losses

Flow stagnation caused by the

distributor header wall near the
last flow channel

Fig. 8 a) Velocity contours of the flow entering collector header from parallel mini-channels, b) Flow entering from
distributor header to parallel mini-channels near the last flow channel.

analytical model cannot be underestimated, because design finalization of the heatsink headers requires hundreds
of design iterations (Fig.

2). Thus, after looking into the mesh and computational resources along with

computational time requirements given in Table. 2, it appears unfeasible to finalize the header design through
three-dimensional numerical study alone using algorithm presented in Fig. 2. However, the initial design
computed through the analytical model can be improved further using numerical techniques.
The pressure loss computed through the mathematical model (analytically) and numerically for channel
configuration 2D is shown in the Fig. 9. The maximum offset in the pressure loss was seen corresponding to flow
rate of 1.5 LPM and for the value of n=0.5, i.e. 24 %. While the minimum difference was noted 7 % for the value
of n = 2.0 at a flow rate of 0.5 LPM. Based upon the above discussion provided in section 4.1, value of

= 1 was

used as a good compromise between pressure loss in the header and size of the header. From here onwards, all
numerical simulations discussed in this and next sections were conducted using value of

= 1.

18

Fig. 10 shows flow maldistribution for different configurations of channel geometry corresponding to different
flow rates of the coolant. Although the header was designed under the conditions of uniform flow distribution
and ideally there should be no flow maldistribution within the heatsink, yet Fig. 10 indicates the presence of
maldistribution within the heatsink. This is due the fact that shape of the header was designed by balancing the
pressure drop in different segments of headers and flow channels. Thus, any imbalance in the pressure will lead
to flow maldistribution. Factors such as flow stagnation near the end walls of the header, pressure drop
encountered by flow at channel entrance, reduction in the collector width due to exiting flow from the channels
and wakes generated by channel thickness have been ignored in the mathematical model. Pressure drop due to
these factors produce pressure imbalance that leads to flow maldistribution within the heatsink. However, it can
be comprehended from Fig. 9 that these factors are function of channel configuration and are trivial at small flow
rate. Corresponding different in the pressure drop values of analytical and numerical results represents the
pressure drop caused by the factors explained above. That is also due to same reason as explained above that the
flow maldistribution increases with the increase of flow rate (Fig. 10).

Pressure drop in the header [Pa]

1200

n = 0.5 ( Analytical)
n = 1.0 ( Analytical)
n = 1.5 ( Analytical)
n =2.0 ( Analytical)
n =0.5 (Numericall)
n = 1.0 ( Numerical)
n = 1.5 (Numerical)
n = 2.0 ( Numerical)

1000
800
600
400
200
0
0.5

0.75

1
1.25
Flow rate [LPM]

1.5

Fig. 9 Pressure drop in the header computed through analytical and numerical model for different flow rates
corresponding to heatsink configuration D1.

19

0.25

1.0-1.5-3.0
1.0-1.0-3.0
1.0-0.5-3.0
1.0-0.2-3.0
0.8-0.2-3.0
0.6-0.2-3.0
0.4-0.2-3.0

MF

0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0.5

0.75

1
1.25
Flow rate [LPM]

1.5

Fig. 10 Flow maldistribution corresponding to different flow rates for different configurations of flow channel
geometry

4.3 PERFORMANCE COMPARISON BETWEEN DESIGNED AND CONVENTIONAL HEADER DESIGN

Fig. 11 shows the pressure losses in the proposed header and conventional header geometries for different
configurations of channel geometry. Proper flow path design through the analytical model resulted in a
streamlined flow of the coolant in the proposed header as shown in the Fig. 12. While, flow paths in the
conventional headers were long and irregular. Consequently, pressure losses in the proposed header were
observed to be substantially less than pressure losses in the conventional header. Also, the difference in the
pressure losses increases with the increase of flow rate. It was noted that pressure losses in the conventional
header were up to 3.5 times more as compared to pressure losses in the proposed header, i.e., for channel
configuration D1 (1.0-0.2-0.3) at a flow rate of 1.5 LPM. Thus, it could be concluded that hydraulic performance

Pressure drop in the header [Pa]

of the heatsink can be improved significantly by improving the design of the header.

2000

1.0-1.5-0.3 ( Conventional)
1.0-1.0-0.3 ( Conventional)
1.0-0.2-0.3 ( Conventional)
0.4-0.2-0.3 ( Conventional)
1.0-1.5-0.3 (Proposed design)
1.0-1.0-0.3 (Proposed design)
1.0-0.2-0.3 (Proposed design)
0.4-0.2-0.3 (Proposed design)

1600
1200
800
400
0
0.5

0.75
1
1.25
Flow rate [LPM]

1.5

Fig. 11 Comparison of pressure losses in the header for conventional and proposed headers

20

Comparison of maldistribution between conventional and proposed headers is shown in Fig. 13 corresponding to
different configurations of channel geometry. Maximum maldistribution noted for a heatsink with proposed
header was 0.24, that is linked with channel geometry configuration 1A. While maldistribution for a heatsink
with conventional header geometry was noted 0.4 that is 74% higher in comparison with a heatsink with
proposed header geometry. For a particular fin configuration, the difference in the values of maldistribution
between heatsinks with proposed and conventional header increases. Maximum and minimum difference in
Fig. 12 Flow streamlines in conventional (top) and designed (bottom) headers

maldistribution between both types of heatsinks were noted 74 % and 11 % corresponding to configuration 1A
and 1D respectively. Velocity profile in different channels of heatsink for configuration 1B is shown in Fig. 14.
Fig. 15 shows a comparison of thermal resistance for a heatsink with proposed and conventional heatsink. Fig.
15 suggests that heatsink with proposed header exhibits better thermal performance. From the simulated set of
heatsink configurations, it was noted that

thermal performance could be increased up to 5% with the

proposed design of the headers.

21

0.5

1.0-1.0-3.0 (Proposed design)

1.0-0.5-3.0 (Proposed design)
1.0-0.2-3.0 (Proposed design)
0.4-0.2-3.0 (Proposed design)
1.0-1.0-3.0 (Conventional)
1.0-0.5-3.0 (Conventional)
1.0-0.2-3.0 (Conventional)
0.4-0.2-3.0 (Conventional)

0.4

MF

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9
1
1.1
Flow rate [LPM]

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

Velocity [ms-1]

Fig. 13 Comparison of the maldistribution in conventional and proposed headers

Conventional header
Proposed design

0.6

0.4

0.2
-0.03

-0.02

-0.01

0.01

0.02

0.03

Distance along the width of heat sink [m]

Thermal resistance (R thermal) [KW-1]

Fig. 14 Velocity profiles of conventional and proposed headers in all flow channels for configuration A2.
0.07

1.0-1.0-3.0 (Conventional)
1.0-0.5-3.0 (Conventional)
1.0-0.2-3.0 (Conventional)
0.4-0.2-3.0 (Conventional)
1.0-1.0-3.0 (Proposed design)
1.0-0.5-3.0 (Proposed design)
1.0-0.2-3.0 (Proposed design)
0.4-0.2-3.0 (Proposed design)

0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

Flow rate [LPM]

0.22

0.24

0.26

Fig. 15 Thermal resistances for conventional and proposed header geometries corresponding to different
configurations of channel geometry

22

5 CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, a mathematical model is proposed to improve the design of distributor and collector header
geometries. Results of the mathematical model suggest that profile of the distributor header geometry (
strong influence on the pressure drop in the header and the size of the header for lower values of

has a
. Also,

pressure drop in the header for a specific configuration of channel geometry is more sensitive to flow rate at
lower values of . Distributor header geometry with value of shape parameter

can be used as a good

compromise between pressure drop in the header and size of header.

Apart from the analytical model, detailed numerical simulations were conducted to analyze the thermal and
hydraulic performance of the heatsink with header geometries that were finalized using a mathematical model.
Based on numerical simulations, it is established that pressure drop, thermal resistance and flow maldistribution
could be reduced up to 71 %, 5 % and 74% respectively through proper design of header geometry.
Presented results propose that distribution within mini-channel heatsink can be improved through proper design
of the distributor and collector headers which results in significant improvement in the thermal and hydraulic
performance of the heatsink.

23

REFERENCES
[1]

S. G. Kandlikar, S. Garimella, D. Li, S. Colin, and M. R. King, Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in
Minichannels and Microchannels. 2014.

[2]

J. Li and G. P. Peterson, 3-Dimensional numerical optimization of silicon-based high performance

parallel microchannel heat sink with liquid flow, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 50, no. 1516, pp.
28952904, 2007.

[3]

L. Gong, K. Kota, W. Tao, and Y. Joshi, Parametric Numerical Study of Flow and Heat Transfer in
Microchannels With Wavy Walls, J. Heat Transfer, vol. 133, no. 5, p. 051702, 2011.

[4]

Z. H. Wang, X. D. Wang, W. M. Yan, Y. Y. Duan, D. J. Lee, and J. L. Xu, Multi-parameters

optimization for microchannel heat sink using inverse problem method, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., vol.
54, no. 1314, pp. 28112819, 2011.

[5]

P. Naphon, S. Klangchart, and S. Wongwises, Numerical investigation on the heat transfer and flow in
the mini-fin heat sink for CPU, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 834840, 2009.

[6]

P. Naphon and S. Wongwises, Investigation on the jet liquid impingement heat transfer for the central
processing unit of personal computers, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 37, no. 7, pp. 822826,
2010.

[7]

M. Rafati, A. A. Hamidi, and M. Shariati Niaser, Application of nanofluids in computer cooling

systems (heat transfer performance of nanofluids), Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 4546, pp. 914, 2012.

[8]

S. A. Jajja, W. Ali, H. M. Ali, and A. M. Ali, Water cooled minichannel heat sinks for microprocessor
cooling: Effect of fin spacing, Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 64, no. 12, pp. 7682, 2014.

[9]

S. Kim, E. Choi, and Y. I. Cho, Effect of header shapes on the flow distribution in a manifold for
electronic packaging applications, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf., vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 329341, 1995.

[10]

R. Chein and J. Chen, Numerical study of the inlet/outlet arrangement effect on microchannel heat sink
performance, Int. J. Therm. Sci., vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 16271638, 2009.

[11]

E. S. Cho, J. W. Choi, J. S. Yoon, and M. S. Kim, Experimental study on microchannel heat sinks
considering mass flow distribution with non-uniform heat flux conditions, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., vol.

24

53, no. 910, pp. 21592168, 2010.

[12]

E. S. Cho, J. W. Choi, J. S. Yoon, and M. S. Kim, Modeling and simulation on the mass flow
distribution in microchannel heat sinks with non-uniform heat flux conditions, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.,
vol. 53, no. 78, pp. 13411348, 2010.

[13]

R. Manikanda Kumaran, G. Kumaraguruparan, and T. Sornakumar, Experimental and numerical studies

of header design and inlet/outlet configurations on flow mal-distribution in parallel micro-channels,
Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 205216, 2013.

[14]

X. Liu and J. Yu, Numerical study on performances of mini-channel heat sinks with non-uniform inlets,
Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 93, pp. 856864, 2016.

[15]

M. Saeed and M.-H. Kim, Numerical study on thermal hydraulic performance of water cooled minichannel heat sinks, Int. J. Refrig., vol. 69, pp. 147164, 2016.

[16]

D. Tondeur, Y. Fan, J. M. Commenge, and L. Luo, Flow and pressure distribution in linear discrete
ladder-type fluidic circuits: An analytical approach, Chem. Eng. Sci., vol. 66, no. 12, pp. 25682586,
2011.

[17]

M. E. Steinke and S. G. Kandlikar, Single-phase liquid friction factors in microchannels, Int. J. Therm.
Sci., vol. 45, no. 11, pp. 10731083, 2006.

[18]

S. Patankar, Numerical heat transfer and fluid flow, Series in coputational methods in mechanics and
thermal sciences. pp. 1197, 1980.

25

Graphical abstract

26

HIGHLIGHT
A mathematical model is proposed to design headers for water-cooled heatsinks.
Thermal and hydraulic performance of proposed headers was tested numerically.
Performance of conventional and proposed headers was compared numerically.
Efficient design of headers improves the performance of heatsinks significantly

27