Alexandria Engineering Journal (2020) xxx, xxx–xxx

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Alexandria University

Alexandria Engineering Journal

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Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in

microchannel heat sinks with rectangular grooves
and different shaped ribs
Qifeng Zhu a,b,1, Kunpeng Chang a, Junjie Chen a,1,*, Xinmin Zhang a,*,
Huixue Xia a, Hongwei Zhang b, Hua Wang a, Haixia Li a, Yangyang Jin a

a
Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic
University, Jiaozuo, Henan, China
b
Henan Xinfei Electric Co., Ltd., Xinxiang, Henan, China

Received 8 February 2020; revised 4 July 2020; accepted 12 August 2020

KEYWORDS Abstract Microchannels are effective heat sinks for microelectronic systems. However, it remains
Microchannel heat sinks; unclear what form of channels will be most effective in improving the overall performance of
Heat transfer; microchannel heat sinks. The effect of channel geometry was studied using computational fluid
Fluid flow; dynamics to understand the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of microchannel heat sinks
Channel geometry; with rectangular grooves in sidewalls and different shaped ribs in the center core flow. Four differ-
Grooves; ent rib configurations are considered, including rectangular, diamond, forward triangular, and ellip-
Ribs tic. In order to fully understand the design and operation of microchannel heat sinks, the overall
performance of these devices was analyzed and evaluated in detail in terms of Nusselt number,
apparent friction factor, and thermal enhancement efficiency. The enhancement mechanism of fluid
flow and heat transfer was discussed in order to determine the optimum channel structure. The
objective was to optimize channel structure for microchannel heat sinks, thereby enhancing heat
transfer and reducing flow resistance and pressure drop. The results indicated that the overall per-
formance can be greatly improved by the combination of grooves and ribs. This combination can
make full use of the advantages of ribs to increase flow disturbance and to enhance heat transfer,
and the advantages of grooves to increase flow area and to reduce pressure drop. The shape and
dimensions of ribs have a significant effect on the overall performance. The overall performance
obtained with rectangular ribs is the best at Reynolds numbers less than 500, but lower than that
obtained with elliptic ribs at Reynolds numbers greater than 500, and even lower than that obtained
with diamond ribs at Reynolds numbers greater than 700. The rectangular grooved channel with
rectangular ribs yields the best overall performance with a relative rib width of 0.25 and at a

* Corresponding authors at: Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic
University, 2000 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo, Henan 454000, China (J. Chen).
E-mail addresses: cjjmmm@163.com, cjj@hpu.edu.cn (J. Chen), zhangxm@hpu.edu.cn (X. Zhang).
1
The first and the third authors contributed equally to this work.
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
1110-0168 Ó 2020 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: Q. Zhu et al., Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks with rectangular grooves and different shaped
ribs, Alexandria Eng. J. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
2 Q. Zhu et al.

minimum rib-groove distance of 0.1 mm and a Reynolds number of 500.

Ó 2020 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Nomenclatures

Ts Temperature of the solid

Roman letters Tw Average temperature of the fluid–solid coupling
Aw Area of the bottom heating surface surface
Acon Convection heat transfer area u Fluid velocity
Cp, f Specific heat capacity of the fluid at constant pres- V Volumetric flow rate
sure W Width of the computational domain
Dh Hydraulic diameter of channels Wc Width of fluid channels
e Total relative error Wr Width of ribs
f Average Fanning friction factor Wt Depth of grooves
f0 Average Fanning friction factor of the smooth x, y, z Cartesian coordinates
straight microchannel heat sink
h Average heat transfer coefficient Greek letters
H Height of the computational domain g Thermal enhancement efficiency
Hc Height of fluid channels k Thermal conductivity
L Length of the computational domain kf Thermal conductivity of the fluid
Lc Length of grooves ks Thermal conductivity of the solid
Lp Periodic length of grooves l Dynamic viscosity
Lr Length of ribs lf Dynamic viscosity of the fluid
Nu Average Nusselt number q Density
Nu0 Average Nusselt number for the smooth qf Density of the fluid
microchannel heat sink nNu Relative Nusselt number
p Pressure nf Relative Fanning friction factor
pin Inlet volume-based average pressure
pout Outlet volume-based average pressure Subscripts
Dp Pressure drop con Contact
q Heat flux f Fluid
Re Reynolds number in Inlet
Pr Prandtl number out Outlet
T Temperature s Solid
Tf Temperature of the fluid w Wall of the silicon base

1. Introduction hexagonal, rhombus, triangular, and trapezoidal in cross-

With the rapid development of microelectronic systems, cool-
ing becomes one of the major concerns in the electronic devices
for dissipating heat to avoid creation of hot spots. Therefore,
an effective cooling technique is necessary to proposed to
remove the heat load on these electronic systems and maintain
the device performance in all conditions. As an innovative
cooling technology for electronic systems, microchannel heat
sinks were first suggested by Tukerman and Pease [1] in the
early 1980s. Due to their inherent advantage of the smaller
hydraulic diameter and large surface area of per unit flow vol-
ume, electronic chips could be effectively cooled by means of
the forced convective flow of water through microchannels
[1]. Since that time, numerous investigations have been carried
out using a variety of designs and geometric configurations [2–
10].
The design of microchannel heat sink elements may include
various geometric configurations, such as rectangular, circular,
section [11]. Much effort has been focused on the effects of
cross-section shapes on the fluid flow and heat transfer charac-
teristics of microchannel heat sinks by adopting various chan-
nel shapes. Alfaryjat et al. [12] designed microchannel heat
sinks with different cross-section channel shapes and numeri-
cally investigated the influence of their geometrical parameters
on the thermohydraulic characteristics using computational
fluid dynamics. The results indicated that the hexagonal
cross-section channel leads to the highest pressure drop and
the maximum heat transfer coefficient while the rhombus
cross-section channel leads to the highest top wall temperature,
friction factor, and thermal resistance. Chen et al. [13], Gun-
nasegaran et al. [14], and Wang et al. [15] numerically studied
the effects of geometrical parametrical parameters on fluid
flow and heat transfer characteristics in microchannels with tri-
angular, rectangular, and trapezoidal cross-section shapes. Li
et al. [16] designed a microchannel heat sink with constructal
vertical Y-shaped bifurcation plates, and numerically

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ribs, Alexandria Eng. J. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks
investigated the laminar flow and heat transfer performance of
the microchannel heat sink.
With the rapidly increase in power density and miniaturiza-
tion of high-density microelectronics, optical devices, instru-
mentation, and other devices, the smooth straight
microchannel heat sinks as noted above, however, has very
limited capability to effectively cool electrical components.
The limited capability of heat dissipation cannot meet the fur-
ther development of advanced electronic systems. As a result,
many innovative designs have been presented to enhance the
heat transfer performance of microchannel heat sinks [17,18],
such as secondary channels [19,20], nanofluid [21,22], channel
curvatures [23,24], dimples and protrusions [25,26], ribs
[27–36], grooves or cavities [40–46], and a combination of ribs
and grooves [47–53]. For example, the performance of
microchannel heat sinks can be greatly improved by designing
ribs in the microchannels [27–36]. Ribs have been used exten-
sively as an efficient approach to enhance heat transfer by
introducing disturbances to increase the mixing of hot and
cold liquid with flow and thermal boundary layer interrupted
and redeveloped. Much progress has been made in understand-
ing the effects of rib shapes, such as rectangular [27–30], trian-
gular [31–33], and fan-shaped or semicircular [34–36], on the
performance of microchannel heat sinks.
Unfortunately, the used of ribs may increase the pressure
drop sharply due to the high-flow disturbances and locking-
flow effect [37–39], and thus the optimization of ribs geometric
parameters is usually necessary to maximize the heat transfer
while minimizing the pressure drop. Due to the larger pressure
drop penalty of microchannel heat sinks with ribs, grooves or
cavities are another approach widely used to enhance heat
transfer by interrupting and redeveloping the flow and thermal
boundary layers while minimizing the pressure drop [40–46].
Due to the effect of jet and throttling structure, the mixing
between cold water in the central flow and hot water near
the wall can be enhanced [40]. In addition, due to the pressure
gradient induced by grooves or cavities, the vortexes formed in
grooves or cavities can further facilitate the mixing of cold
water and hot water [41].
To make use of the intensive flow disruption capacity of
ribs and the lower pressure drop of grooves or cavities, the
combination of ribs and either grooves or cavities has been
found to be effective in enhancing heat transfer while minimiz-
ing the pressure drop [47–54]. Bayrak et al. [47] studied the
effects of channel geometric structure on the flow characteris-
tics and heat transfer performance of a microchannel heat sink
with both of grooves and ribs, and found that a microchannel
heat sink with symmetrical grooves and ribs has the best ther-
mal performance. Xia et al. [48] numerically studied the ther-
mal performance of a microchannel heat sink with fan-
shaped grooves and internal ribs on sidewalls. It has been
found that the Nusselt number is 1.3–3 times more than that
in the case of smooth channels. Li et al. [49] designed a novel
microchannel heat sink with rectangular ribs and triangular
cavities. With this design, the overall thermal performance
can be greatly improved. Zhai et al. [50] made a performance
analysis for microchannel heat sinks with fan-shaped grooves
and three different rib structures, and found that the effect
of rib types on the overall performance is significant. The com-
bination of grooves and ribs can be effective in enhancing heat
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ribs, Alexandria Eng. J. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
3
transfer, but the optimum rib type varies depending upon the
Reynolds number [50,51]. Ghani et al. [52] designed a
microchannel heat sink with rectangular ribs and sinusoidal
cavities, and found that the overall performance can be greatly
improved by providing rectangular ribs and sinusoidal cavities
in the microchannels. Datta et al. [53] designed a microchannel
heat sink with trapezoidal grooves and different structure ribs,
and found that the structure of ribs can greatly affect the over-
all thermal performance.
Most of physical and natural phenomena can be mathemat-
ically modeled through differential equations [55–58]. Differ-
ential equations play a prominent role in many disciplines
such as engineering and physics [59–62]. Computational fluid
dynamics can be used to analyze and solve problems that
involve fluid flows by numerically solving the deferential equa-
tions of fluid motion. Microchannels heat sinks have caused
considerable interest in the heat transfer community [2–10].
In particular, much effort has been devoted to optimize the
geometric structure of microchannel heat sinks through a com-
bination of ribs and cavities or grooves with different geome-
tries using computational fluid dynamics, as stated above.
However, little attention has been focused on the means for
enhancing heat transfer and reducing flow resistance and pres-
sure drop. There are fundamental thermal physical and
mechanical constraints preventing implementation on the scale
necessary for edge cooling high power microelectronic systems
[2–10]. It remains unclear what form of channels will be most
effective in improving the overall performance. The structure
of ribs needs to be further improved, and further study should
be performed to determine what shape of ribs will be most
effective in improving the overall performance while maintain-
ing a reasonable pressure drop.
In this study, computational fluid dynamics simulations of
laminar flow and heat transfer in silicon-based microchannel
heat sinks with rectangular grooves and different shaped ribs
were performed under a constant wall heat flux boundary con-
dition at the silicon substrate. A plurality of microchannels
were formed directly on the silicon substrate. Rectangular
grooves were used for the microchannel heat sinks, as they
can significantly decrease pressure due to its larger flow area.
Four different shapes of ribs were designed for the rectangular
grooved microchannel heat sinks, including rectangular, dia-
mond, elliptic, and forward triangular in shape, in order to
provide higher flow disruption to enhance thermal perfor-
mance. The optimum geometric conditions were determined
for these microchannel heat sinks. The physical dimensions
of the channels were also optimized for the particular silicon
material employed.
The heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of
microchannel heat sinks with rectangular grooves and different
shaped ribs were investigated in the range of Reynolds number
from 100 to 900 in order to determine the optimum channel
structure and thus to optimize the overall performance. The
objective was to optimize channel structure for microchannel
heat sinks using computational fluid dynamics, thereby
enhancing heat transfer and reducing flow resistance and pres-
sure drop. Particular focus was placed on the performance
comparison of different rib shapes and dimensions so as to
understand the enhancement mechanism of fluid flow and heat
transfer in microchannel heat sinks.
4 Q. Zhu et al.

2. Description of the model
2.1. Description of the microchannel heat sinks
A typical microchannel heat sink consists of substrate, top
plate, sidewalls, and thirty parallel channels. To reduce the
computational cost, only the minimum units of microchannel
heat sinks are considered due to their symmetry. The compu-
tational domains that are employed for the microchannel heat
sinks considered are illustrated schematically in Fig. 1, in
which the geometric parameters used for the heat sinks are also
indicated. Silicon is taken as the solid domain material, and
deionized water, which is a cooling liquid, is used as the fluid
domain material. Generally, silicon-based microelectrome-
chanical systems technology is used to create microchannels
within silicon wafers that have various shaped cross-sections.
In this study, the microchannels comprise a plurality of pas-
sages of generally rectangular cross section. The sidewalls of
the channels are designed with rectangular grooves and rectan-
gular, diamond, elliptic, and forward triangular shaped ribs to
enhance heat transfer and reduce flow resistance and pressure
drop. It is worth noting that the flow performance of a device
is often specified in terms of its flow resistance and pressure
drop. All the ribs are located in the center core flow between
two aligned rectangular grooves in the opposite sidewalls with
the same width and length. The dimension of the computa-
tional domain is 10 mm in overall length, 0.3 mm in width,
and 0.4 mm in height. Each channel has 10 mm in overall
length, 0.15 mm in width, and 0.3 mm in height. The thickness
of the substrate bottom wall is 0.1 mm. All the geometric
parameters used for the heat sinks are given in Table 1, in
which these parameters are expressed in units of millimeters.
A uniform heat flux boundary condition is applied to the
bottom wall of each microchannel subjected to heating with
the objective being to determine the optimum design, and no
heat loss from the solid surfaces to the ambient surroundings
is assumed at the boundaries.
2.2. Mathematical model
A mathematical model is a description of a system using math-
ematical concepts and language [63–66]. The process of build-
ing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling
[67–70]. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences
and engineering disciplines [71–74]. Mathematical models can
take many forms [75–80]. In many cases, the quality of a scien-
tific field depends on how well the mathematical models built
on theory agree with results of repeatable experiments. When
theoretical mathematical models do not match experimental
measurements, it is necessary to correct the model. Such cor-
rections lead the way to better theories to explain the facts.
FLUENT software is a state-of-the-art computer program
for modeling fluid flow, heat transfer, and chemical reactions
in complex geometries. In particular, FLUENT software pro-

Lp
(c) Lc
Wt

Lr Lr

Wr
Wc

Wr
Wt

Rectangular grooved channel with rectangular ribs Rectangular grooved channel with elliptic ribs

Lr
Wr

Rectangular grooved channel with diamond ribs Rectangular grooved channel

Lr
Wr

Rectangular grooved channel with forward triangular ribs Smooth straight channel

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of the microchannel heat sinks modelled in this study. (a) Computational domain that is employed for the
smooth straight channel heat sink considered. (b) Computational domain that is employed for the rectangular grooved channel heat sink
considered. (c) Schematic illustration of the structure of the channels considered. The geometric parameters used for the channels are
indicated.

Please cite this article in press as: Q. Zhu et al., Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks with rectangular grooves and different shaped
ribs, Alexandria Eng. J. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks 5

Table 1 Geometric parameters used for the microchannel heat sinks considered in this study.
Geometrical parameters H W Hc Wc L Wt Wr Lr Lc Lp
Value (mm) 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.15 10 0.05 0.07 0.2 0.5 1.0

vides comprehensive modeling capabilities for a wide range of (3) The no-slip and conjugate heat transfer boundary condi-
incompressible and compressible, laminar and turbulent fluid tions are applied at all the fluid–solid interfaces:
flow problems [81,82]. FLUENT software also offers highly @Ts @Tf
scalable, high-performance computing to help solve complex, ux ¼ uy ¼ uz ¼ 0; Tf ¼ Ts ;
ks ¼
kf ð5Þ
@n @n
large-model computational fluid dynamics simulations quickly
and cost-effectively. Therefore, the computational fluid (4) A constant heat flux is imposed onto the bottom heating
dynamic software FLUENT 18.1 is used to solve the three- surface:
dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer equations based on
the following assumptions: @Ts

ks ¼ qw : ð6Þ
@n
(a) The fluid in the channels can be treated as a continuum,
The heat flux is assumed to be 106 W/m2 in this study.
since the Knudsen number is far less than 10
3.
(b) The fluid is Newtonian and incompressible [42,49].
(5) Symmetry boundary conditions are used to reduce the
(c) A laminar and steady flow state [42,49,52,83].
extent of the model:
(d) The density, viscosity, specific heat capacity, and ther-
mal conductivity of the fluid vary depending upon tem- @Ts

k ¼ 0: ð7Þ
perature, but other properties of the solid and fluid are @y
assumed in this study to be constant [42,49,84].
(e) Negligible radiation heat transfer, surface tension, and (6) Adiabatic boundary conditions are applied to all the
gravity [42,49,52]. other surfaces:
(f) Viscous dissipation cannot be ignored [34,42].
@Ts @Tf
¼ 0; ¼0 ð8Þ
Qu and Mudawar [83] found that when the characteristic @n @n
dimension of a channel is larger than 0.1 mm and the Reynolds The properties of deionized water are defined as a function
number is less than 1700, the traditional Navier-Stokes equa- of temperature [84]:
tions are still applicable. As a result, the governing equations
qf ¼ 999:84 þ 18:225T
7:92  10
3 T2
5:545  10
5 T3
for fluid flow in the channels can be simplified to the following

expressions: þ1:498  10
7 T4
3:933  10
10 T5


1
Continuity equation:  1 þ 1:816  10
2 T ;
rV ¼ 0: ð1Þ ð9Þ
Momentum equation:
5 247:8ðT
140Þ
1
lf ¼ 2:414  10  10 ; ð10Þ


qðV  rVÞ ¼
rP þ r lf  rV : ð2Þ
Cp;f ¼ 8958:9
40:535T þ 0:11243T2
1:014  10
4 T3 ; ð11Þ
Energy equation for the fluid regions:


qCp V  rTf ¼ r kf  rTf : ð3Þ kf ¼
0:58166 þ 6:3556  10
3 T
7:964  10
6 T2 : ð12Þ

The energy equation for the silicon-based solid region can

be simplified as follows:
rðks  rTs Þ ¼ 0:
The boundary conditions used in the model are defined as
follows:
(1) The inflow velocity can be defined by specifying the
velocity magnitude and direction at the flow inlet. For
simplicity, the following fluid velocities are selected in
the streamwise direction at the flow inlet: 1.0, 1.5, 2.0,
2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0 m/s. Using the specified
fluid velocities, the Reynolds numbers at the flow inlet
can be obtained. The corresponding Reynolds number
is 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900, respec-
tively, at the flow inlet. The temperature of the fluid is
set to be 293 K at the flow inlet.
(2) A static pressure is specified at the outlet boundary.
2.3. Grid independence test
ð4Þ
The typical grids used for the smooth straight channel, the
rectangular grooved channel, and the rectangular grooved
channel with diamond ribs are shown in Fig. 2. It is worth not-
ing that only the grids created in the x-y plane are depicted
here for clarity of presentation. The other grids used in this
study are not presented for simplicity. These grids are created
in GAMBIT software.
A grid independence test is performed to make sure that the
solution is independent of the grid resolution. In the case that
the Reynolds number is 600 at the flow inlet, the rectangular
grooved channel and the rectangular grooved channel with
forward triangular ribs are employed as examples with their
total grid node number varying from 0.14 million to 1.26 mil-
lion. The accuracy and relative error are computed by means
of the following equation

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6 Q. Zhu et al.

than 10
6 for all variables except the energy equations, for
which the criterion is 10
8.

2.4. Validation of the model

The accuracy and reliability of the model are validated by

comparing the numerical results with the experimental data
available from Chai et al. [45]. The characteristics of fluid flow
and heat transfer in a smooth straight channel are investigated
by using the computational fluid dynamics model developed
above. A comparison is made under the same conditions.
The comparison results are presented in Fig. 3, in which the
average Nusselt number and the Poiseuille number, which is
the product of average Fanning friction factor and Reynolds
number, are expressed as a function of Reynolds number.
The numerical results are in good agreement with the experi-
mental data.

3. Data reduction

To determine the overall performance of a microchannel heat

sink, several analysis parameters and dimensionless quantities
Fig. 2 Typical grids used for the smooth straight channel, the
are used.
rectangular grooved channel, and the rectangular grooved channel
The Reynolds number at the flow inlet is defined as
with diamond ribs modelled in this study. Only the grids created in
the x-y plane are depicted here for clarity of presentation. qf uin Dh
Re ¼ : ð14Þ
lf

jM2
M1 j The equivalent hydraulic diameter of the channels is given

e¼  100%; ð13Þ by
M1
in which e represents relative error, M represents any parame- 2Hc Wc
Dh ¼ : ð15Þ
ter, M1 represents the value of a parameter that is obtained H c þ Wc
from the finest grid, and M2 represents the value of a param- In analyzing the overall performance of microchannel heat
eter that is obtained from other grids. In comparison to the fin- sinks, an apparent friction factor is used. The apparent friction
est grid with a total grid node number of 1.26 million, the total factor is defined as
relative errors of pressure drop and Nusselt number are listed
in Table 2 for different total grid node numbers. The results DpDh
f¼ ; ð16Þ
indicate that the grid with a total grid node number of 0.62 2qf Lu2in
million has a reasonable accuracy, compared to that of with
the other total grid node numbers. Accordingly, the total grid
node numbers employed in this study for the microchannel
heat sinks are 0.62 million.
The governing equations are discretized with the SIMPLEC
algorithm decoupling pressure–velocity. To ensure the conver-
gence for the solution, the residual criterions are set to be less

Table 2 Pressure drop and Nusselt number and their total

errors relative to the finest grid with a total grid node number
of 1.26 million.
Total Dp e Nu e
node (kPa) (%) (%)
number
Rectangular grooved 1.26  106 22.26 – 10.58 –
channel 0.62  106 22.19 0.3 10.67 0.8
0.36  106 21.88 1.7 10.42 1.4
0.17  106 21.98 1.2 10.94 3.3
Rectangular grooved 1.26  106 47.47 – 17.78 – Fig. 3 Effect of Reynolds number on the average Nusselt
channel with forward 0.62  106 46.75 1.5 17.54 1.3
number and Poiseuille number obtained for a smooth straight
triangular ribs 0.35  106 45.51 4.1 15.86 10.8
channel. The experimental data available in the literature [45] are
0.14  106 43.28 8.8 13.06 26.5
also included for comparison.

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Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks 7

Dp ¼ pin
pout : ð17Þ

The heat transfer coefficient is defined as
qw Aw
h¼
: ð18Þ
Acon Tw
Tf
The Nusselt number is defined as
hDh
Nu ¼
: ð19Þ
Acon Tw
Tf
In order to facilitate the design of heat exchangers for heat
transfer enhancement at high temperatures, Webb [85] defined
performance evaluation criteria for microchannel heat
exchangers with skewed ribs on the opposite sidewalls after
improvements. The thermal enhancement efficiency is used in
this study to evaluate the effect of groove shape on heat trans-
fer enhancement. The thermal enhancement efficiency is
defined as
  
13
Nu f
g¼ : ð20Þ
Nu0 f0
The relative Nusselt number and the relative Fanning fric-
tion factor are defined respectively as
Nu
nNu ¼ : ð21Þ
Nu0
f
nf ¼ : ð22Þ
f0

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Characteristics of fluid flow

To understand the structure and behavior of fluid flow in the

channels with rectangular grooves and different shaped ribs,
the effect of rib shape on the flow performance of fluid flow
in the channels is investigated. In the case that the Reynolds
number is 700 at the flow inlet, the contour plots of fluid veloc-
ity in the channels in the streamwise direction and in the trans-
verse direction are presented in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, respectively.
The transverse direction is a direction perpendicular to the
direction of flow of the fluid. The presence of grooves and ribs
makes the structure of fluid flow in the rectangular grooved
channels different from that in the smooth straight channel,
as illustrated in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. The streamlines in the
smooth straight channel are parallel to each other in the
streamwise direction, as described in the literature
[20,27,40,86]. In the rectangular grooved channels, the stream-
lines are slightly offset from the direction over the grooves, and
a part of the fluid flows into the grooves, forming flat shaped
vortexes for the instantaneously pressure induced by grooves.
The fluid velocity in the regions of grooves is less than that
in the other regions due to the suddenly widened cross-
sectional area. Due to the vortexes formed in the regions of
grooves and the low fluid velocities in these regions, flow stag-
nation regions are formed, deteriorating heat dissipation for
the bottom surfaces of grooves. However, the hot fluid of vor-
texes could be mixed with the main cool fluid nearby the lead-
ing edge of the grooves, as illustrated in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5.
The combination of ribs and grooves has a significant effect
on the flow structure in the channels, as illustrated in Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Contour plots of fluid velocity in the channels in the
streamwise direction when the Reynolds number is 700 at the flow
inlet. The distance from the bottom heating surface is 0.175 mm.
and Fig. 5. The fluid is separated into two parts by the ribs,
entering the grooves with high fluid velocities. The fluid breaks
the flat vortex into two small vortexes in the corners of the bot-
tom surface of a groove, reducing the area of the flow stagna-
tion region. Furthermore, the fluid with a high flow velocity
flushes the bottom surface of the groove to enhance the trans-
port of heat between the fluid and the wall. In addition, two
stable small symmetrical vortexes are formed behind the rect-
angular ribs in the Rectangular grooved channel with rectan-
gular ribs. The vortexes formed by the triangular and
diamond ribs are small in the channels. The elliptical ribs
induce no obvious vortexes in the channel.
The effect of rib shape on the average Fanning friction fac-
tor is investigated for the microchannel heat sinks considered.
The results are presented in Fig. 6, in which the average Fan-
ning friction factor is expressed as a function of the Reynolds
number at the flow inlet. When the Reynolds number at the
flow inlet increases from a low level to a high level, the average
Fanning friction factor first decreases quickly, and then levels

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8 Q. Zhu et al.
Fig. 5 Contour plots of fluid velocity in the channels in the
transverse direction when the Reynolds number is 700 at the flow
inlet. The distance from the flow inlet is 5.0 mm.
off in the range of high Reynolds numbers. The rectangular
grooved channel with rectangular ribs has the largest average
Fanning friction factor, followed by the other channels with
grooves and ribs, and then the smooth straight channel. The
rectangular grooved channel has the smallest average Fanning
friction factor, allowing for the lowest pressure drop configura-
tion. For the rectangular grooved channel, there is a decrease
in fluid velocity due to the suddenly widened cross-sectional
area, which can reduce the flow resistance. In addition, the
fluid is subjected to both rolling friction and sliding friction
due to the vortexes formed in the grooves, which can also
reduce the flow resistance of the fluid flowing in the channel.
Compared with the rectangular grooved channel, the channels
with grooves and ribs have a higher flow resistance, since the
ribs block the high-speed linear fluid flow, which can enhance
the fluid disturbance. The rectangular grooved channel has the
largest flow resistance, since the area of vortexes formed
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ribs, Alexandria Eng. J. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
Fig. 6 Average Fanning friction factor as a function of the
Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The distance from the bottom
heating surface is 0.175 mm.
behind the ribs is large as illustrated in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, which
increases the pressure drag.
4.2. Characteristics of pressure drop
In the case that the Reynolds number is 700 at the flow inlet,
the contour plots of fluid pressure in the channels are pre-
sented in Fig. 7. The fluid pressure in the smooth straight chan-
nel decreases linearly along the direction of fluid flow due to
the friction losses. In contrast, the use of grooves or ribs
may lead to complex pressure distribution. For the rectangular
grooved channel, there is a high-pressure region formed at the
down streamline corners in the grooves. For the channels with
grooves and ribs, the distribution of fluid pressure changes
sharply in the vicinity of the ribs. A high-pressure region is
formed in front of the ribs, which increases the local pressure
drag. The rectangular grooved channel with rectangular ribs
has the highest pressure drop between the front side and the
back side of each rectangular rib. This is because the rectangu-
lar grooved channel with rectangular ribs has smaller hydraulic
diameters than the other channels in the vicinity of the ribs the
pressure difference acts on the entire section, which indirectly
leads to an increase in pressure drop.
When the Reynolds number varies from 100 to 900 at the
flow inlet, the pressure drop through the channels is shown
in Fig. 8. The pressure drop in the channels increases with
increasing the Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The presence
of ribs restricts fluid flow to the outlet and thus provides a sub-
stantial pressure drop through the channels. The rectangular
grooved channel with rectangular ribs has the highest pressure
drop due to the strongest flow disturbance, followed by the
other channels with ribs and grooves, and then the smooth
straight channel. The fluid in the rectangular grooved channel
flows directly from the inlet to the outlet, resulting in better
fluid flow performance due to the lowest pressure drop.
4.3. Characteristics of heat transfer
In the case that the Reynolds number is 700 at the flow inlet,
the contour plots of temperature in the channels are presented
Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks
Fig. 7 Contour plots of fluid pressure in the channels when the
Reynolds number is 700 at the flow inlet. The distance from the
bottom heating surface is 0.175 mm.
in Fig. 9. In addition, the average temperature of the bottom
heating surface as a function of the Reynolds number at the
flow inlet is shown in Fig. 10. The smooth straight channel
has a widened continuous thermal boundary layer along the
direction of fluid flow, which leads to a much higher tempera-
ture than the other channels. For the rectangular grooved
channel, the interruption and redevelopment of thermal
boundary layer take place in the channel, which makes the
temperature lower than that in the smooth straight channel.
Along the direction of fluid flow, the fluid temperature in the
rear part of a groove is lower than that in the front part due
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9
Fig. 8 Pressure drop through the channels as a function of the
Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The differences in pressure
drop between all the rectangular grooved channels with ribs and
grooves are very small, except the rectangular grooved channel
with rectangular ribs.
to the separated cool fluid entering into the groove at the
groove tail, then absorbing heat from the groove bottom sur-
face and flowing out of groove at the front with high temper-
ature to mix with the core flow. The channels with grooves and
ribs have a lower temperature than the rectangular grooved
channel. This is because the ribs force the cool fluid separated
into the grooves to strengthen the heat transfer with the groove
wall and enhance the mixing of the hot fluid and the cool fluid.
The lowest temperature appears in the rectangular grooved
channel with rectangular ribs, as illustrated in Fig. 9 and
Fig. 10. This suggests the best performance of heat transfer
with the highest Nusselt number as indicated in Fig. 11, in
which the average Nusselt number is expressed as a function
of the Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The cool fluid is
forced flowing into the grooves by the rectangular ribs with
a larger attack angle due to the front flat plane, enhancing
the heat transfer with the grooves wall and the mixing with
the hot fluid. In addition, the sidewall area of rectangular ribs
is the largest in all of the ribs as shown in Fig. 12, in which the
surface area of the boundaries between the fluid and the solid
is indicated for all the types of channels. For the rectangular
grooved channel with rectangular ribs, the fluid–solid coupled
area is the largest in all of the ribs, thereby greatly enhancing
the heat transfer performance. Interestingly, the rectangular
grooved channel with forward triangular ribs has a larger
fluid–solid coupled area than the rectangular grooved channel
with elliptic ribs and the rectangular grooved channel with dia-
mond ribs, but has a higher temperature, indicating that the
area of heat transfer is not the only factor affecting the thermal
performance. On the other hand, when the Reynolds number
increases from a low level to a high level, the average temper-
ature of the bottom heating surface first decreases quickly, and
then levels off in the range of high Reynolds numbers, as
shown in Fig. 10. This indicates that increasing flow rate is
not an efficient method to reduce the heating surface tempera-
ture when the Reynolds number rises to a certain level.
10
Fig. 9 Contour plots of temperature in the channels when the
Reynolds number is 700 at the flow inlet. The distance from the
bottom heating surface is 0.125 mm.
4.4. Comprehensive performance
Analysis and comparisons are made to further evaluate the
overall performance of all the types of channels with rectangu-
lar grooves and ribs. The relative Nusselt number as a function
of the Reynolds number at the flow inlet is shown in Fig. 13.
The rectangular grooved channel has the lowest relative
Nusselt number, and the rectangular grooved channel with
rectangular ribs has the highest relative Nusselt number due
to the enhanced flow mixing and the largest surface area for
contact between the fluid phase and the solid phase. For all
the channels with grooves and ribs, the rectangular grooved
channel with forward triangular ribs has the lowest relative
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Q. Zhu et al.
Fig. 10 Average temperature of the bottom heating surface as a
function of the Reynolds number at the flow inlet.
Fig. 11 Average Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds
number at the flow inlet. The dimensionless Nusselt number is the
ratio of convective to conductive heat transfer at a boundary in the
fluid.
Nusselt number due to its weaker disturbance with a pointy
shaped head.
The relative Fanning friction factor as a function of the
Reynolds number at the flow inlet is shown in Fig. 14. The
rectangular grooved channel has the lowest relative Fanning
friction factor, which is in range from 0.65 to 0.7. This indi-
cates that its friction drag greatly reduces the fluid flow perfor-
mance due to the vortexes formed in the grooves, as illustrated
in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. The rectangular grooved channel with
rectangular ribs has the highest relative Fanning friction factor
due to its flat shaped head resulting in the strongest flow dis-
turbance. The differences in relative Fanning friction factor
between all the rectangular grooved channels with ribs and
grooves are very small, except the rectangular grooved channel
with rectangular ribs.
The thermal enhancement efficiency is determined for all
types of the channels to evaluate their comprehensive perfor-
mance. The results are presented in Fig. 15, in which the ther-
mal enhancement efficiency is expressed as a function of the
Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks
Fig. 12 Surface area for contact between the fluid phase and the
solid phase for all the types of channels.
Fig. 13 Relative Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds
number at the flow inlet. The relative Nusselt number is defined in
Eq. (21).
Fig. 14 Relative Fanning friction factor as a function of the
Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The relative Fanning friction
factor is defined in Eq. (22).
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11
Fig. 15 Thermal enhancement efficiency as a function of the
Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The thermal enhancement
efficiency is defined in Eq. (20).
Reynolds number at the flow inlet. The rectangular grooved
channel has the minimum thermal enhancement efficiency,
which is in the range from 96% to 194%. In the case that
the Reynolds number is less than about 500 at the flow inlet,
the rectangular grooved channel with rectangular ribs
has the maximum thermal enhancement efficiency. In the case
that the Reynolds number is greater than about 500 at the flow
inlet, the rectangular grooved channel with elliptic ribs has the
maximum thermal enhancement efficiency. Consequently, the
use of a combination of rectangular grooves and rectangular
ribs offers unique design advantages at lower Reynolds num-
bers, but this design does lose advantages at higher Reynolds
numbers. On the other hand, high fluid velocities associated
with high Reynolds numbers can enhance heat transfer, while
at the same time reducing the effective residence time of the
fluid. As a result, the thermal enhancement efficiency first
increases and then decreases when the Reynolds number at
the flow inlet increases from a low level to a high level.
Therefore, there appears to be an optimum range of Reynolds
number, depending up on operating conditions. Within this
Reynolds number range, maximum thermal enhancement effi-
ciency is allowed for the microchannel heat sinks considered.
5. Optimization of geometric parameters
In order to further improve the comprehensive performance, it
is necessary to investigate the effect of geometric parameters.
In the case that the Reynolds number is less than about 500
at the flow inlet, the rectangular grooved channel with rectan-
gular ribs has the best overall performance as discussed above,
and thus is employed here as an example to optimize the geo-
metric parameters. In the present study, two parameters are
chosen so as to optimize the thermal–hydraulic performance,
including the relative width of ribs as well as the minimum
rib-groove distance, which is defined as the minimum distance
from a rib to the leading edge of a groove.
5.1. Effect of the relative width of ribs
The effect of the relative width of ribs on the thermal–hy-
draulic performance is investigated. The relative width of ribs
12 Q. Zhu et al.

Table 3 Geometric parameters used for the microchannel

heat sinks considered in this study.
Relative width of 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35
ribs
Width of ribs (mm) 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07

Fig. 16 Average Fanning friction factor as a function of the

relative width of ribs for different Reynolds numbers at the flow
inlet. The minimum distance from a rib to the leading edge of a
groove is 0.15 mm, and the length of ribs is 0.2 mm.

is defined as the ratio of the width of a rib to the length of the

rib. The minimum distance from a rib to the leading edge of a
groove is 0.15 mm, and the length of ribs is 0.2 mm. The rela-
tive width of ribs as a function of the width of ribs is listed in
Table 3.
The effect of the relative width of ribs on average Fanning
friction factor is shown in Fig. 16 for different Reynolds num-
bers at the flow inlet. The average Fanning friction factor
increases with the relative width of ribs. When the Reynolds
number increases from a low level to a high level, the average
Fanning friction factor first decreases quickly, and then levels
off in the range of high Reynolds numbers, as discussed above.
The contour plots of fluid pressure and the fluid velocity in the
channels in the streamwise direction for different relative width
of ribs are presented in Fig. 17, when the Reynolds number is
300 at the flow inlet. As the relative width of ribs increases, a
high-pressure region and a low-velocity region are formed in
front of the ribs, which increases the local pressure. In addi-
tion, the streamlines are bent sharply and two vortexes are
formed at the back of the ribs.
The effect of the relative width of ribs on average Nusselt
number is shown in Fig. 18 for different Reynolds numbers
at the flow inlet. The average Nusselt number increases with
the increase of the relative width of ribs and the Reynolds
number due to the enhanced flow disturbance and the mixing
of the hot fluid and the cool fluid, thereby greatly enhancing
the heat transfer performance. The effect of the relative width
of ribs on thermal enhancement efficiency is shown in Fig. 19.
The thermal enhancement efficiency increases with the Rey-
nolds number at the flow inlet. In the case that the Reynolds
Fig. 17 Contour plots of fluid pressure and the fluid velocity in
the channels in the streamwise direction for different relative width
of ribs. The Reynolds number is 300 at the flow inlet, and the
distance from the bottom heating surface is 0.175 mm. The
minimum distance from a rib to the leading edge of a groove is
0.15 mm, and the length of ribs is 0.2 mm.
number is less than 300 at the flow inlet, the thermal enhance-
ment efficiency increases with the increase of the relative width
of ribs. In the case that the Reynolds number is greater than
400 at the flow inlet, the thermal enhancement efficiency first
increases quickly, and then decreases slowly in the range of
large relative width of ribs. In all the cases studied, the maxi-
mum thermal enhancement efficiency can be achieved with a
relative width of ribs of 0.25 and at a Reynolds number of 500.
5.2. Effect of the minimum rib-groove distance
The minimum distance from a rib to the leading edge of a
groove varies from 0 to 0.3 mm. The ribs are 0.2 mm in length
and 0.05 mm in width, and thus the relative width of ribs is
0.25. The average Fanning friction factor as a function of
the minimum rib-groove distance is shown in Fig. 20 for differ-
ent Reynolds numbers at the flow inlet. When the minimum

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Characteristics of heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannel heat sinks 13

Fig. 18 Average Nusselt number as a function of the relative

width of ribs for different Reynolds numbers at the flow inlet. The
minimum distance from a rib to the leading edge of a groove is
0.15 mm, and the length of ribs is 0.2 mm.

Fig. 20 Average Fanning friction factor as a function of the

minimum rib-groove distance for different Reynolds numbers at
the flow inlet. (a) Average Fanning friction factor as a function of
the minimum rib-groove distance. (b) Schematic illustration of the
minimum rib-groove distance defined in this study. The ribs are
0.2 mm in length and 0.05 mm in width.

Fig. 19 Thermal enhancement efficiency as a function of the

relative width of ribs for different Reynolds numbers at the flow
inlet. The minimum distance from a rib to the leading edge of a
groove is 0.15 mm, and the length of ribs is 0.2 mm.

rib-groove distance increases from a low level to a high level,

the average Fanning friction factor first decreases quickly,
and then levels off and increases quickly in the range of large
minimum rib-groove distance. As a result, the average Fanning
friction factor is relatively large in the range of small and large
minimum rib-groove distance due to the significant blocking
effect of ribs at the entrance and exit of the grooves. When
the relative width of ribs is 0.25, the minimum average Fan-
ning friction factor can be achieved with a minimum distance
of 0.2 mm and at a Reynolds number of 500.
The average Nusselt number as a function of the minimum
rib-groove distance is shown in Fig. 21 for different Reynolds
numbers at the flow inlet. The ribs are 0.2 mm in length and
0.05 mm in width. The minimum rib-groove distance has little
effect on the average Nusselt number. The maximum average
Nusselt number can be achieved at smaller minimum rib-
groove distance due to the strongest chaotic advection and
Fig. 21 Average Nusselt number as a function of the minimum
rib-groove distance for different Reynolds numbers at the flow
inlet. The ribs are 0.2 mm in length and 0.05 mm in width.
therefore heat transfer. The average Nusselt number increases
with the Reynolds number, as discussed above. The thermal
enhancement efficiency as a function of the minimum rib-
groove distance is shown in Fig. 22 for different Reynolds
numbers at the flow inlet. The ribs are 0.2 mm in length and
0.05 mm in width. When the minimum rib-groove distance
increases from a low level to a high level, the thermal enhance-

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14
Fig. 22 Thermal enhancement efficiency as a function of the
minimum rib-groove distance for different Reynolds numbers at
the flow inlet. The ribs are 0.2 mm in length and 0.05 mm in width.
ment efficiency first increases quickly in the range of small min-
imum rib-groove distance, and then decreases quickly in the
range of large minimum rib-groove distance. When the relative
width of ribs is 0.25, the maximum thermal enhancement effi-
ciency can be achieved with a minimum distance of 0.1 mm
and at a Reynolds number of 500. Overall, the thermal
enhancement efficiency increases with the Reynolds number.
6. Conclusions
Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations
of laminar flow and heat transfer in silicon-based microchan-
nel heat sinks with rectangular grooves and different shaped
ribs were carried out. The combined effects of rectangular
grooves and ribs were analyzed through comparison with the
performance the smooth straight channel. The optimization
of geometric parameters was performed in the range of Rey-
nolds number from 100 to 900 in order to further improve
the overall performance. The overall performance was ana-
lyzed and evaluated in detail based on various criteria. The fol-
lowing major conclusions can be drawn from this study.
 The performance and efficiency of microchannel heat sinks
can be greatly enhanced if the internal passages are com-
prised of microchannels with grooves and ribs. The overall
performance can be greatly improved by the combination of
grooves and ribs.
 The grooves arranged in channel sidewalls can significantly
reduce the flow resistance due to the increased flow area
resulting into a lower velocity and the vortexes formed in
grooves playing the role of translating sliding friction to
rolling friction.
 Such grooves are also beneficial to heat transfer enhance-
ment, with higher Reynolds numbers generally producing
more enhancement, due to the interruption and redevelop-
ment of thermal boundary layers, and the flow mixing
between the cool fluid in core flow and the hot fluid from
near wall regions through vortexes.
 The combination of grooves and ribs can be effective in
improving the overall performance through enhancing the
heat transfer and reducing the high-pressure drop caused
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ribs, Alexandria Eng. J. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.08.014
Q. Zhu et al.
by ribs, rather than only using grooves or ribs. This combi-
nation can make full use of the advantages of ribs to
increase flow disturbance and to enhance heat transfer,
and the advantages of grooves to increase flow area and
to reduce pressure drop.
 The overall performance obtained with rectangular ribs is
the best at Reynolds numbers less than 500 at the flow inlet,
but lower than that obtained with elliptic ribs at Reynolds
numbers greater than 500, and even lower than that
obtained with diamond ribs at Reynolds numbers greater
than 700, indicating that the shape of ribs has a significant
effect on the overall performance.
 For the rectangular grooved channel with rectangular ribs,
the average Fanning friction factor and the average Nusselt
number increases with increasing the relative width of ribs
at Reynolds numbers less than 500 at the flow inlet. As
the minimum rib-groove distance increases from a low level
to a high level, the average Fanning friction factor first
decreases and then increases whereas the thermal enhance-
ment efficiency first increases and then decreases. The min-
imum rib-groove distance has little effect on the average
Nusselt number. The rectangular grooved channel with
rectangular ribs yields the best overall performance with a
relative rib width of 0.25 and at a minimum rib-groove dis-
tance of 0.1 mm and a Reynolds number of 500.
The computational fluid dynamics simulations performed
here provides a full understanding of the effects of channel
geometry on the overall performance. The above results have
important significance to fully understand the design and oper-
ation of microchannel heat sinks. These results are also appli-
cable in a wide variety of applications with specific application
to the microelectronics industry.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51506048), the Natural Science
Foundation of the Education Department of Henan Province
(No. 15A470002), and the Natural Science Foundation of the
Henan Administration of Coal Mine Safety (No. HN15-61),
Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Teachers in Insti-
tutions of Higher Education in Henan Province (Nos.
2019GGJS054 and 2017GGJS050).
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