Asymptotic and Exact Analysis for Constructal Optimization of Microchannel Heat Sink

Microchannel are at the fore front of today’s cooling technologies. They are widely being considered for cooling of electronic devices and in micro heat exchanger systems due to their ease of manufacture. One issue which arises in the use of microchannels is related to the small length scale of the channel or channel cross-section. In this work, the maximum heat transfer and the optimum geometry for a given pressure loss have been calculated for forced convective heat transfer in microchannels of various cross-section having finite volume for laminar flow conditions. Solutions are presented for 10 different channel cross sections, namely parallel plate channel, circular duct, rectangular channel, elliptical duct, polygonal ducts, equilateral triangular duct, isosceles triangular duct, right triangular duct, rhombic duct and trapezoidal duct. The model is only a function of Prandtl number and geometrical parameters of the cross-section, i.e., area and perimeter. This solution is performed with two exact and approximate methods. Finally, in addition to comparison and discussion about these two methods, validation of the relationship is provided using results from the open literature.