a numerical and experimental investigation of flow maldistribution in a micro-channel heat sink

a study of flow mal-distribution in u-type micro-channel configuration is presented. numerical simulations indicate that flow deceleration and associated pressure recovery in the inlet header lead to flow separation and recirculation which cause oscillations in channel-wise mass flow distribution. increase in flow resistance by decrease in channel depth, width or number of channels or increase in channel length, results in a more uniform distribution. mal-distribution increases at high flow rate or low viscosity due to the dominance of inertial phenomena. experiments performed on a 25-channel setup illustrate that small manufacturing variations in channel dimensions introduce random fluctuations in flow distribution.