Multi-objective topology optimization and thermal performance of liquid-cooled microchannel heat sinks with pin fins

The optimized structures for the liquid-cooled microchannel heat sinks with different pin-fin arrays were designed via using the topology optimization method for the better performance, including minimization of the flow energy dissipation and the average temperature of the bottom surface, aiming to facilitate the more efficient design of microchannel heat sink for electronic chips’ cooling. The heat transfer and flowing performance was simulated with steady-state incompressible Navier-Stokes equation and the energy equation. Based on the rational approximation of material properties (RAMP) method, the mathematical optimization model for heat sink was established according to the multi-objective function. The Galerkin finite element method (GFEM) was employed to calculate the flow and heat transfer system. Furthermore, the globally convergent method of moving asymptotes (GCMMA) was adopted to deal with the mathematical optimization problem as the optimization method. The entropy generation analysis and comprehensive heat transfer factor were employed to evaluate the performance of the conjugate heat transfer problem of 3D microchannel heat sinks with various pin-fin structures. The calculation results reveal that the multi-objective optimal structure has good heat transfer performance, and the temperature distribution of the optimized structure is more uniform. As the same pumping power, the comprehensive heat transfer efficiency of the optimized inline and staggered pin-fin arrays increases by 31.20% and 32.18% compared to the smooth rectangular channel. Compared with the cylindrical pin-fin configuration with the same heat transfer area, the entropy generation rates of the optimized inline and staggered pin-fin configurations decrease by 4.67% and 4.25%, respectively. The results can provide theoretical basis and application support for the electronic chip cooling technology.