Flow Maldistribution Effects on the Temperature Uniformity in Double-Layered Microchannel Heat Sinks

A numerical investigation is carried out on the effects of flow maldistribution on the temperature uniformity and overall thermal resistance in double-layered microchannel heat sinks. Different flow maldistribution models accounting for the effects of some typical header designs are considered together with different combinations of the average inlet velocity in the two layers of microchannels for a given total mass flow rate. The numerical simulations are carried out using an in-house FEM procedure previously developed by the authors for the analysis of cross-flow microchannel heat exchangers.