International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

A numerical and experimental investigation of heat transfer and fluid

flow characteristics of an air-cooled oblique-finned heat sink
Bugra Kanargi, Poh Seng Lee ⇑, Christopher Yap
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, 117576, Singapore

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The thermal and hydraulic performances of an air-cooled, planar, oblique-finned heat sink (OF HS) were
Received 26 January 2017 investigated for two oblique angles: 30° and 45°. The conjugate heat transfer between the heat sink and
Received in revised form 31 August 2017 the air flow were computed numerically in ANSYS Fluent for a range of air flow rates for the smallest peri-
Accepted 5 September 2017
odically repeating portion of the heat sink. The RNG k-e turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment
Available online 17 October 2017
was used to solve the fluid flow and heat transfer. Followed by the experimental validation, the numerical
results were scrutinized further to understand the effects of the flow field on the measured heat transfer
Keywords:
performances. Apart from boundary layer disruption, vortices generated within the secondary channels
Air cooling
Oblique fin
due to flow separation particularly improved the advection component of the convective heat transfer,
Advection resulting in a heat transfer enhancement, exceeding the pressure drop penalty. The strong flow mixing,
Secondary flow showing chaotic behavior, enabled a more uniform increase in the air temperature in the streamwise
Flow migration direction, utilizing the cooling potential of the air flow more effectively. 30° oblique-finned heat sink
Thermal-hydraulic performance factor was observed to induce higher rates of secondary flow rates and improve the heat transfer performance
more than its 45° counterpart. Due to the migration of the flow in the direction of the secondary channels,
the heat transfer enhancement was compromised at high Reynolds numbers, the pressure drop penalty
exceeded the heat transfer enhancement, causing a reduction in the thermal-hydraulic performance fac-
tor. The effects of flow migration on the flow and temperature fields were investigated with full domain
numerical simulations. Experimental investigations showed significant improvements in the junction
temperatures.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Air side heat transfer is the bottleneck of the heat transfer path
in thermal management systems due to the inferior thermody-
namic and transport properties of gases. Liquid cooling technolo-
gies are capable of managing higher cooling loads at smaller
footprints; however, they are expensive, more intricate in design,
and require more comprehensive and frequent maintenance.
Hence, ways are being sought to maintain the effectiveness of air
cooling. To make better thermal management systems working
primarily with air; the entire heat transfer path, starting from
the source to the surrounding environment to which the heat is
sunk, should be optimized [1]. On the heat transfer path, the heat
sink is the most crucial component since the convective resistance
makes the highest contribution to the total thermal resistance [2].
Great effort has been made to design enhanced heat transfer sur-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: bugrakanargi@u.nus.edu (B. Kanargi), mpelps@nus.edu.sg
(P.S. Lee), mpecyap@nus.edu.sg (C. Yap).
faces that can lower the convective resistance. Inducing secondary
flows to reinitialize the boundary layers, or increasing turbulent
intensity to enhance flow mixing via regular and/or chaotic advec-
tion were commonly exploited flow phenomena. Achieving such
flow phenomena in a flow field requires non-conventional heat
sink designs that introduce flow disturbances and inevitably oper-
ate at higher pressure drops. A significant increase in the pressure
drop may cause all heat transfer enhancement to be offset by an
increase in the pumping/fan power. However, a carefully tailored
flow field can improve the heat transfer at a relatively lower pres-
sure drop penalty. Such attempts, reported in the literature, are
briefly summarized in the following paragraphs. Since these
attempts have recently shifted from air cooling to single and two
phase liquid cooling, the literature review was not kept limited
to air cooling studies.
Developing thermal and hydraulic boundary layers yield higher
temperature and velocity gradients at the walls, providing more
rapid removal of thermal energy [3]. Zhou and Catton [4] intro-
duced pin fins of various shapes between plate fins to repeatedly
disturb the boundary layers. They compared the overall perfor-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.09.013
0017-9310/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
394 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

Nomenclature

A area Q thermal power

cp specific heat Qair effective heating power of air flow
Dh hydraulic diameter Qloss the rate of the heat loss from the test section
DP pressure drop Qh heater power in numerical simulations
DTconv temperature difference that drives convective heat r radius
transfer Rcond thermal conduction resistance
deg degree Re Reynolds number
e uncertainty of a measured or a derived parameter Rec-o cross-over Reynolds number
ENu Nusselt number enhancement ratio: heat transfer SC HS straight channel heat sink
enhancement T temperature
Ef pressure drop penalty (friction factor penalty) u velocity
EWT enhanced wall treatment 
u average velocity
exp experimental V voltage
fF fanning friction factor W width, thickness
hlocal local convective heat transfer (convection) coefficient
hL average convection coefficient Greek letters
H height D difference
HS heat sink l dynamic viscosity
I current gth thermal-hydraulic performance factor
k thermal conductivity q density
k-e turbulence kinetic energy-rate of dissipation of h oblique angle
turbulence kinetic energy
L length Subscripts
LH hydrodynamic entrance length 0 reference heat sink design
LT thermal entry length a air
m_a air mass flow rate
avg average
m_ a;i air mass flow rate at the heat sink inlet ch channel
m_ a;sec secondary air mass flow rate cond conduction
num numerical
cr-sec cross section/cross-sectional
Nu0 average Nusselt number of the reference heat sink de- e enhanced heat sink design
sign hs heat sink
Nue average Nusselt number of the enhanced heat sink de- i inlet
sign
j junction
NuL average Nusselt number m mean
OF HS oblique-finned heat sink o outlet
P pressure sec secondary
Pr Prandtl number
w wall (wetted walls of a heat sink)
pfan fan power
pfin OF HS fin pitch
00
qconv convective heat flux

mances of various plate-pin fin heat sink combinations using the
heat transfer effectiveness factor, proposed by Webb and Kim [5],
for equal pumping/fan power constraint. The square shaped pin
fins showed the best heat transfer performance, however its pres-
sure drop penalty offset the heat transfer enhancement compared
to the plate fins. The circular pin fins yielded a higher heat transfer
effectiveness, which was diminished at higher air flow rates due to
the vortices induced in the wake of the fins. The streamline-shaped
pin fins yielded the highest thermal effectiveness due to more
favorable pressure drop characteristics. The elliptic-shaped pin fins
and the NACA 0050 airfoil profile showed almost the same perfor-
mance, which was followed by the drop shaped pin fin. Similar
findings on circular, elliptical and drop-shaped pin fins were also
reported by Wang et al. [6].
Chai et al. [7] introduced offset ribs of various shapes to the
sidewalls of a water cooled straight microchannel heat sink. The
ribs of rectangular, backward triangular, isosceles triangular, for-
ward triangular, and semicircular shapes were observed to repeat-
edly disturb the boundary layers at the fin walls and induce flow
recirculation regions downstream. Heat transfer enhancement
was observed at higher pressure drop penalties. Xia et al. [8,9]
investigated the thermal and hydraulic performances of water
cooled, corrugated, straight microchannel heat sinks with triangu-
lar and semi-circular cavities. Flow recirculation regions, induced
within the cavities, were observed to reduce the thickness of the
thermal boundary layer over the fin walls. The reentrant cavities
increased the effective heat transfer area and the vortices provided
better flow mixing via chaotic advection. A more uniform and
lower substrate temperature was obtained at the same heat trans-
fer rate. In contrast to the ribs that extend into the flow domain [7],
the cavities [8,9] provided a heat transfer enhancement, exceeding
the pressure drop penalty. Compared to the conventional straight
microchannel heat sink, the triangular reentrant cavities provided
a 40–60% increase in Nusselt number, while the friction factor pen-
alty varied from
20% to 30% [8]. The corrugated microchannels
with semi-circular reentrant cavities improved the fan power up
to 20% for constant thermal resistance [9].
DeJong and Jacobi [10] performed an experimental study on
louvered fin arrays that could enhance air side heat transfer by
boundary layer disruption and vortex shedding. An experimental
flow visualization was performed with dye injection method to
visualize the vortices induced between adjacent louvers. It was
observed that the vortices were encompassed within the louvers
of the near wall region at low Reynolds numbers, whereas they
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
started to be discharged to the main stream as Reynolds number
increased. In the spatially periodic region of the louvered fin arrays,
the flow was mainly louver directed, except for very low Reynolds
numbers. Heat transfer enhancement, observed at high Reynolds
numbers, was due to boundary layer reinitialization in the periodic
section of the louvered fin array and unsteady flow field, generated
by the vortex shedding in the near wall region.
Lee et al. [11] studied the planar oblique-finned microchannel
heat sink. The secondary flows induced by the oblique channels
reinitialized the thermal and hydraulic boundary layers at the
leading edge of each fin section. This novel microchannel heat sink
design allowed doubling the heat transfer performance, accompa-
nied by a pressure drop penalty of approximately 50% relative to
the straight microchannel heat sink of equivalent dimensions.
Fan et al. [12] studied the application of the oblique fins over a
cylindrical surface in minichannel size. A heat transfer enhance-
ment of 75% was obtained with respect to the cylindrical straight
fin minichannel heat sink at the maximum flow rate experimented
with an almost negligible pressure drop penalty. The adverse
effects of the pressure drop observed in the planar oblique-
finned microchannel [11] were overcome with the cylindrical obli-
que finned heat sink, since a complete flow recirculation zone was
created around the cylindrical base of the heat sink.
The advantages of the oblique-finned heat sinks were evident in
two-phase flow boiling, as well. Prajapati et al. [13] evaluated flow
boiling heat transfer characteristics of uniform cross section,
diverging cross section, and segmented fin (oblique fin)
microchannels. For the entire range of operating conditions ana-
lyzed, segmented finned channels demonstrated the highest heat
transfer performance with negligible pressure drop penalty com-
pared to other configurations. The authors commented that the
segmented fin microchannels totally eliminated the bubble clog-
ging problem and no flow reversal was observed. Law et al. [14]
studied the effect of the oblique angle on two-phase flow and heat
transfer. A higher oblique angle promoted a higher heat transfer
performance since the number of oblique fin sections would be
maximum, while the oblique angle did not have a profound effect
on the pressure drop for two-phase flow.
In a recent review paper, summarizing the effects of channel
design on the thermal and hydraulic performances of microchan-
nel heat sinks, Ghani et al. [15] concluded that the oblique fins
have achieved the best heat transfer performance among the
recently studied microchannel heat sink fin designs. So far, single
and two-phase liquid cooling performances of the oblique-finned
heat sinks were investigated for micro and minichannel sized, pla-
nar and cylindrical heat sinks; however, the air cooling perfor-
mance has never been tested. This study focuses particularly on
the phenomenological understanding of air flow through planar,
oblique-finned heat sink design for two oblique angles: 30° and
45°. The thermal and hydraulic performance behaviors are
explained by studying the flow and temperature fields from the
numerical results. The results and conclusions will be beneficial
to researchers in understanding the usefulness of the flow phe-
nomena for future optimization of heat sinks, and to the thermal
engineers in designing better performing thermal management
systems for the electronics of the future.
2. Heat sink design
Fig. 1 shows the isometric view of the straight channel heat sink
(SC HS) test piece and its dimensions. The channel height Hch is 8
mm, the channel width Wch is 4 mm, fin width Wfin is 1 mm, the
total length of the heat sink LHS is 120 mm, the width of the heat sink
WHS is 100 mm, and the length of the finned section Lch is 108 mm.
Finally, the height of the base of the heat sink HHS is 17 mm.
395
The oblique-finned heat sink (OF HS) was created based on the
conventional SC HS. The design parameters of the OF HS are pre-
sented in Fig. 2. The oblique fin geometry is obtained by introduc-
ing secondary channels to the fins of the SC HS in a collinear
manner. The oblique angle h is the angle between the main and
the secondary channels. The fin pitch pfin is the distance between
two consecutive fins in the streamwise direction. The width of
the oblique channels Woblique ch is the shortest distance between
the walls of an oblique channel. In this study, two OF HS configu-
rations were studied: h = 30° and h = 45°, where pfin was 4 mm for
both cases. The rest of the dimensions of the OF HS are the same as
those of the SC HS. Fig. 3 shows the isometric view of the OF HS test
piece.
3. Numerical analysis
3.1. Assumptions
The numerical simulations of the OF HS were performed under
the following assumptions:
 Steady state fluid flow and heat transfer,
 Turbulent, incompressible air flow and heat transfer,
 Temperature dependent air properties,
 Negligible viscous dissipation, radiation heat transfer, and body
forces.
3.2. Governing equations
The OF HS simulations were initially attempted to be solved
using the laminar flow and heat transfer equations for low Rey-
nolds numbers; however, a satisfactory convergence in the residu-
als could not be obtained, unless turbulent flow models were
implemented. Shankar and Deshpande [16] summarized the fluid
flow phenomena that can be observed in driven cavity flows such
as complex three dimensional flow patterns, chaotic advection,
flow instabilities, transition, turbulence etc. Therefore, in the sim-
ulations of the OF HS; the vortices, induced within the secondary
channels due to flow separation, were suspected to have caused
the inertial forces to exceed the viscous forces even at low Rey-
nolds numbers, resulting in an unsatisfactory convergence with
the laminar flow and heat transfer equations. Among the variety
of alternatives in ANSYS Fluent, the RNG k-e turbulence model
[17], which is a refined version of the standard k-e model, was uti-
lized. The RNG k-e turbulence model is capable of resolving rapidly
strained flows. The RNG theory employs an analytical formulation
for the calculation of the effective viscosity not only at high, but
also at low Reynolds numbers. Hence, this turbulence model was
appropriate by itself to resolve the entire range of air flow rates
investigated. The accuracy of the numerical results obtained with
the RNG k-e turbulence model for the solution of a similar flow
and heat transfer problem was validated experimentally by the
present authors in [18].
The RNG k-e turbulence model is based on the Reynolds-
averaged Navier-Stokes and energy equations [19]. The Reynolds-
averaged continuity, momentum, and the fluid and solid domain
energy equations [17] can be respectively written as
@
ðqui Þ ¼ 0 ð1Þ
@xi

 
@ @p @ @u @u
ðqui uj Þ ¼
þ l i þ j
qu0i u0j ð2Þ
@xj @xi @xj @xj @xi
 
@ @ l @T
ðqTuj Þ ¼
qT 0 u0j ð3Þ
@xj @xj Pr @xj
396 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

Fig. 1. Isometric view of straight channel heat sink test piece and its dimensions.

Main flow direction

Wch/2
pfin (fin pitch)
ϴ
Wfin
Woblique ch Secondary
flow direction
Wch/2

Fig. 2. Top view of oblique-finned heat sink and design parameters.

Fig. 3. Isometric view of oblique-finned heat sink test piece and its dimensions.
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 397


@ @T The EWT option for the RNG k-e turbulence model necessitates
k ¼0 ð4Þ
@xj @xj that the first cell adjacent to a wall is placed at y+ < 1 so that the
viscous sublayer can be resolved accurately. In this study, the max-
where the turbulent stress and the turbulent heat flux are
imum y+ values of the cells adjacent to the walls were kept less



@ui @uj 2 @u than 0.5 to ensure that the first layer cells adjacent to the walls

qu0i u0j ¼ lt þ
qk þ lt k dij ð5Þ
@xj @xi 3 @xk are located well within the viscous sublayer.


lt @T 3.4. Solution domains and boundary conditions

qT 0 u0j ¼ ð6Þ
Pr t @xj
Fig. 4 shows the periodic solution domain of the OF HS. Only the
In order to calculate the turbulence kinetic energy k, and the rate of smallest periodically repeating section of the heat sink and the air
dissipation of turbulence kinetic energy e, transport equations are domain were modeled in order to reduce the computational cost.
solved. The transport equations of the RNG k-e model were modi- The inlet and outlet portions of the air flow domain were extended
fied from those of the standard k-e model and are given as by one third of the length of the heat sink to consider entrance

 effects at the heat sink air inlet and to overcome the convergence
@ @ @k
ðqkui Þ ¼ ak leff þ Gk
qe þ Sk ð7Þ issues stemming from the reversed flow at the heat sink air outlet.
@xi @xj @xj
The velocity at the air inlet was uniform and the air inlet temper-

 ature was 20 °C. Pressure outlet boundary condition was set for the
@ @ @e e e2
ðqeui Þ ¼ ae leff þ C 1e Gk
C 2e q ð8Þ air outlet with a gauge pressure of 0 Pa. All the side surfaces of the
@xi @xj @xj k k
computational domain were introduced to the solver as periodic
where Sk is a user defined source term for the turbulence kinetic boundaries. The wetted surfaces of the heat sink were coupled
energy and Gk is the turbulence kinetic energy generation due to with the corresponding surfaces of the air domain with no slip
the mean velocity gradients, which is given as boundary condition and conjugate heat transfer. A constant heat

 flux boundary condition of 1666.7 W/m2, corresponding to 20 W
@ui @uj @ui
Gk ¼ lt þ ð9Þ of heating power for the entire heat sink footprint, was set at the
@xj @xi @xj heater boundary. In the solid domain, the front and back walls of
The turbulent and effective viscosities, lt and leff, are defined as the base of the heat sink and the tips of the fins were attended
as adiabatic walls. The top wall of the air domain, and the top
lt ¼ qC l k2 =e ð10Þ and bottom walls of the extended air domains were also attended
as adiabatic walls with no slip boundary condition.
leff ¼ l þ lt ð11Þ The full domain computational model of the OF HS is presented
in Fig. 5. The inlet and outlet boundary conditions of the full
Finally C⁄2e, the modified version of the constant C2e, is domain computational model were the same as those of the peri-
C 2e ¼ C 2e þ C l g3 ð1
g=g0 Þ=ð1 þ bg3 Þ ð12Þ odic computational domain. The top, bottom, and side walls of
the air domain were introduced to the solver as adiabatic walls
where g is the ratio of the user defined turbulence kinetic energy to with no slip boundary condition. The wetted walls of the heat sink
the rate of dissipation of the turbulence kinetic energy, g = Sk/e. were coupled with the corresponding surfaces of the air domain
When the value of g is higher than g0, the flow is strongly with no slip boundary condition and conjugate heat transfer. The
strained and the value of C⁄2e is less than C2e, which would be side walls, the front and back walls, and the fin tips of the heat sink
predicted by the standard k-e turbulence model. A smaller value were attended as insulated walls. 20 W heat transfer rate was
of C⁄2e in (8) yields a lower destruction of e than normal. Since defined at the heat sink junction.
the destruction of e decreases, e actually increases, yielding a lower
k. An increase in e and a decrease in k results in a lower lt, which 3.5. Material properties
can be evaluated as (10). Finally, the analytically derived constants
of the RNG theory are Cl = 0.085, C1e = 1.42, C2e = 1.68, g0 = 4.38, The prototypes of the OF HS designs were fabricated out of alu-
b = 0.012, ak = ae = 1.393 [20]. minum alloy 6061-T6; density, thermal conductivity and specific
heat of which are q = 2700 kg/m3, k = 168 W/m °C and cp = 896 J/
3.3. Treatment of the wall kg °C [22,23], respectively. The air properties [22], incorporated
in 3rd degree polynomials, the coefficients of which are listed in
The enhanced wall treatment (EWT) was employed for the sim- Table 1, were introduced to the solver. The solver evaluated the
ulations of the turbulent flow and heat transfer. EWT is a near wall air properties for every cell at every iteration with an average per-
modeling that combines the two-layer model (the viscous sublayer cent deviation of 0.02%.
and the fully turbulent layer) with the enhanced wall functions. y+
is a significant near-wall modeling parameter [21], used in the con- 3.6. Solution grid and grid independence
text of wall treatment, which is a dimensionless wall coordinate
and defined as The computational grids of the periodic and the full domain OF
þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi HS solution models, presented in Fig. 6, were created in ANSYS
y ¼ us y=m where us ¼ sw =q ð13Þ
Mesh. Structured quadrilateral cells were generated at the top wall
us is the friction velocity, y is the distance to the nearest wall, m is of the air domain with a face sizing of 0.1 mm. In the vicinity of the
the kinematic fluid viscosity, sw is the wall shear stress, and q is fin walls, where the no slip boundary condition is valid, a boundary
the fluid density. The viscous sublayer can be considered up to y+ layer mesh was generated with 14 slowly growing layers with a
= 11.225 with the least error, while the log law is applied for y+ > starting first layer thickness of 0.005 mm, which yielded a dimen-
30 [19]. The buffer zone, which lies in between these two regions, sionless wall distance y+ < 0.5. This is a requirement to resolve the
cannot be accurately resolved with neither of these models. EWT viscous boundary layer correctly with the selected turbulence
utilizes a hybrid wall function that is derived from these two mod- model and the enhanced wall treatment [17]. Next, the mesh pro-
els for the buffer layer [17]. file generated for the top surface of the air domain was swept
398 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

Fig. 4. Periodic computational model of oblique-finned heat sink and boundaries.

heat sink
air inlet

air inlet

heat sink
air outlet

heater

air outlet

Fig. 5. Full domain computational model and boundaries.

Table 1
Thermal and transport properties of air as a function of temperature. than 0.22% for the average Nusselt number and 0.3% for the friction
U A1 A2 A3 factor. The mesh count was approximately 9 million for the peri-
odic OF HS solution domains.
q [kg/m3] 3.2894
0.010286 0.000010653
k [W/m K] 0.0007626595 0.0000965192
0.0000000371 Utilizing the same quality grid for the simulations of the full
cp [J/kg K] 1033.78
0.217226807 0.000421911 domain computational models as that of the periodic ones would
l [kg/m s] 0.0000012568043 0.00000006698901
0.0000000000313 have resulted in a mesh count of nearly 200 million, making it
U(T) = A1 + A2T + A3T2 where T is in Kelvin, and 273.15 K < T < 373.15 K impossible to handle the computations using our existing compu-
tational facilities. Therefore, a reverse grid independence analysis
was performed to coarsen the independent grid of the periodic
computational models. The quality of the mesh were reduced at
towards the bottom surface of the air domain with fine boundary locations, where strong gradients in temperature and velocity
layer cells in the vicinity of the top and bottom walls to satisfy fields did not exist. The number of sweep layers utilized for the
the y+ criteria. For the solid domain, a tetrahedral mesh was used channel height were reduced. The heat sink mesh sizing was set
to solve the conduction heat transfer within the heat sink. A non- to increase from 0.4 mm at the wetted surface to 3 mm at the hea-
conformal mesh was generated at the solid-fluid interface not to ter boundary. Nevertheless, the first layer thicknesses of the cells at
let the mesh count in the solid domain to increase abruptly due the walls of no slip boundary condition were kept the same since
to the fine boundary layer cells of the air domain. Instead, the aver- the y+ criteria had still to be satisfied. As a result, the mesh count
age mesh size in the solid domain was set to increase from 0.25 for a single channel was dropped from 9 million to approximately
mm at the wetted surfaces to 1 mm at the bottom of the heat sink. 2.1 million with a maximum deviation of 2.7% in Nusselt number
The aforementioned sizing parameters were determined after a and the friction factor compared to the periodic computational
comprehensive grid independence study. Compared to a higher model simulation results. The grid of the full domain solution
resolution grid, the final grid utilized did not yield a change more model comprised approximately 44 million elements.
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 399

where n is the number of cells at the respective boundary. Finally,

top view-periodic model
the mass flow rate of air is calculated at the heat sink inlet as
X
n
_a¼
m ui :~
qi~ Ai ð16Þ
i¼1

The average air velocity through the finned section of the heat sink
is
¼m
u _ a =ðq@T m;a Aflow cr
sec Þ ð17Þ

where the mean air temperature and the flow cross sectional area
through the finned section of the heat sink are
T m;a ¼ ðT a;i þ T a;o Þ=2 ð18Þ
side view-
side view-
full
periodic Aflow cr-sec ¼ W ch  Hch ðperiodic numerical modelÞ ð19Þ
domain
model
model
Aflow cr-sec ¼ W ch  Hch
 #of channels ðfull domain & experimentalÞ ð20Þ

Thus, the average Reynolds number is given in (21), where the

hydraulic diameter is defined both for the SC HS and the OF HS as
in (22).
q@T m;a u Dh
Re ¼ ð21Þ
l@T m;a

4W ch Hch
top view-full domain model Dh ¼ ð22Þ
2ðW ch þ Hch Þ
Fig. 6. Top and side views of computational grids of periodic and full domain The average convection coefficient is
computational models of oblique-finned heat sink.
Qh
hL ¼ ð23Þ
Aw DT conv
where the temperature difference that drives the convective heat
3.7. Solver settings
transfer is calculated as
After importing the grid into ANSYS Fluent, the steady state sol- DT conv ¼ T w
T m;a ð24Þ
ver with double precision was selected. The boundary conditions
The fan power is given in (25) where the pressure drop through the
were introduced. The SIMPLEC algorithm was used for pressure-
heat sink is calculated by taking the difference between the static
velocity coupling with second order upwind discretization scheme
pressures at heat sink air inlet and outlet.
for momentum, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulent dissipation
rate. The absolute convergence criteria was 10
10 for energy and _ a DP
m
10
6 for the remaining parameters. Besides the residuals, the
pfan ¼ ð25Þ
q@T m;a
mass-weighted average values of the air inlet pressure and air out-
let temperature were ensured to reach a steady state value before DP ¼ Pa;i
Pa;o ð26Þ
the calculations were terminated. Running on Intel Xeon X5690
processor at 3.47 GHz with 8 cores, the simulations of the periodic Finally, the performance parameters, the average Nusselt number
OF HS models were completed within 24–72 h for each case. The and the Fanning friction factor, are calculated as
simulations converged relatively faster at higher air flow rates.
hL Dh
Each full domain solution took up 72 h to fully converge. NuL ¼ ð27Þ
k@T m;a
3.8. Numerical data reduction
DPDh
fF ¼ ð28Þ
 2 Lhs
2q@T m;a u
The air inlet and outlet temperatures and pressures (Ta,i, Ta,o,
Pa,i, and Pa,o) were calculated as mass-weighted, while the average
temperatures of the heat sink wetted walls Tw and junction Tj were
4. Experimental analysis
calculated as area-weighted averages of all the respective values of
the cells at the respective boundaries. The mass- and area-
The thermal and hydraulic performances of the SC HS and the
weighted average of a parameter, /, is calculated in ANSYS Fluent
OF HS were measured using the compact wind tunnel experimen-
respectively as
tal setup.
Pn
ui :~
/i qi j~ Ai j
/mass-weighted ¼ Pi¼1 ð14Þ
n
~ ~ 4.1. Experimental setup
i¼1 i i i j
q j u : A

Fig. 7a shows the schematic view of the compact wind tunnel

1X n
/area-weighted ¼ / jAi j ð15Þ experimental setup. EBM-Papst rg148 centrifugal fan was installed
A i¼1 i
at the inlet of the wind tunnel. A variac transformer served the
400 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
(a)
Long circular duct
L = 1 m, Dh = 44 mm
Air
Flow
discharge
direction
(b) low high
ΔP
Test section
Heat sink
Ths 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Heater
Fig. 7. Schematic view of desktop wind tunnel experimental setup.
function of powering the fan and adjusting its rotational speed. An
expander section connected the fan outlet to the wind tunnel inlet.
The inlet section of the wind tunnel was extended to ensure flow
uniformity at the heat sink inlet. The air inlet temperature was
measured at the beginning of the extended section in order not
to disturb the air flow just before the heat sink inlet. The test sec-
tion was made out of Teflon, which is a polymer that can withstand
high temperatures of the heater. It held the heater and the test
piece firmly in place and provided thermal insulation against the
extensive heat losses from the test section. A thin layer of high
thermal conductivity thermal interface material, OMEGATHERM
201, was applied on the entire surface of the heater before bringing
it in contact with the heat sink junction. A bottom cover made out
of Teflon was screwed to the heat sink housing to maintain tight
contact between the plate heater and the heat sink. The plate hea-
ter was powered by the Sorensen XTR-150–5.6 power supply,
which allowed fine adjustments of the supply voltage and current.
The temperature of the test piece was measured using eight T-type
thermocouples, placed into the holes within the test pieces, opened
in the streamwise direction at mid-height of the heat sink base
(Fig. 7b). The pressure drop of the air flow through the heat sink
was measured using differential pressure transducers. Considering
the possibility of having a non-uniform air outlet temperature,
nine T-type thermocouples, tips of which had been spot welded,
were placed at the air outlet (Fig. 7a and c). The last section of
the compact wind tunnel was a long circular duct, which was con-
nected to the test section outlet with a reducer. This long circular
tube helped to obtain a fully developed velocity profile at the air
discharge so that the central velocity could be accurately measured
using a probe type velocimeter (Fig. 7d).
Reducer & expander
Test section
Air outlet Ta,o Air inlet Ta,i Air blower
(c)
Flow cross sectional area at heat sink outlet
Whs = 100 mm
Hch
8 mm
Tair outlet
(d)
Air discharge
Velocity probe
4.2. Data acquisition and reduction
Data was acquired using a National Instrument cDAQ 9178 USB
chassis, equipped with appropriate thermocouple, voltage, and
current reading modules. A LabView program was created to auto-
matically acquire, pre-process, and record the data. The tempera-
ture measurements were monitored real time while a steady
state was sought, in which the temperature variations were within
±0.1 °C over five-minute periods. All the readings of a given vari-
able, recorded for five minutes at every second, were time-
averaged to obtain a single data.
Although, the experimental data presented in this study were
merely of steady state, the transient heat transfer characteristics
were observed while reaching a steady state. The observations
aligned well with those of Prajapati et al. [24]. The air flow rate sig-
nificantly affected the time required to reach a steady state. As the
air flow rate was increased, the temperatures reached steady state
faster. For the lowest air flow rate studied, it took longer than an
hour for the temperature deviations to drop below ±0.1 °C over
five-minute periods, while it took less than 10 min for the highest
air flow rate. No observable change in the steady state times
occurred with a change in the heating power. The OF HS experi-
ments reached steady state operating conditions faster than the
SC HS. Finally, it was observed that cooling the heat sink helped
to reach steady state faster than heating the heat sink. Therefore,
the experimental sets were initialized with the lowest Reynolds
numbers.
The average heat sink temperature Ths, the heat sink air inlet tem-
perature Ta,i, and the heat sink air outlet temperature Ta,o were cal-
culated by averaging the time-averaged readings of the respective
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 401

thermocouples as in (29), where n represents the number of thermo- Since the heat sink temperature Ths was measured at the mid-
couples utilized for each measurement. Pressure drop and air outlet height of the base of the heat sink, the average wetted wall tem-
velocity measurements were performed using a single sensor at a perature Tw vary from Ths as
time, and the voltage and current supplied to the heater plate were
T w ¼ T hs
Rcond;hs Q air =2 ð36Þ
recorded according to the digital output of the power supply.
! where the 1D thermal conduction resistance of the heat sink base is
X
n
Ti ¼ T iðjÞ =n ð29Þ calculated as
j¼1
Hhs 0:017 m
Rcond;hs ¼ ¼
To be able to impose the thermal boundary condition as accurately khs  Ahs;base 168W=m K ð0:1  0:2Þm2
as possible, the heat loss from the test section to the surroundings K
had to be immediately calculated and compensated during the ¼ 8:4325  10
3 ð37Þ
W
experiments. Therefore, the exact amount of heat loss from the test
During the experiments, the air inlet temperature varied by up to
section at various testing conditions had to be known. Since the
±1.5 °C depending on the environment temperature and the fan
temperature of the surroundings remained constant, the heat loss
speed. As the fan speed increased, the air inlet temperature
was a function of the temperature of the test section, therefore
increased since the heat dissipated by the fan motor increased.
the average heat sink temperature. For that reason, the heat loss
For the numerical and experimental junction temperatures to be
of the test section was characterized by measuring the heat sink
comparable, the average heat sink temperature Ths was corrected
temperature at various heating powers with the absence of air flow.
as Ths,corrected by offsetting Ths according to the deviation of the air
A similar heat loss characterization method was utilized by Jeng
inlet temperature Ta,i from 20 °C. Ths,corrected was evaluated accord-
et al. [25]. The relation between the heat loss and the average heat
ing to Eq. (38) regardless of whether Ta,i was smaller or higher than
sink temperature was formulated as a linear equation as
20 °C.
Q loss ¼ 0:3461T HS av g
6:7736 ð30Þ
T hs;corrected ¼ T hs
ðT a;i
20 CÞ ð38Þ
Once the above correlation is obtained, the effective heating power
Next, the junction temperature was evaluated from Ths,corrected as
of the air flow is calculated as
T j ¼ T hs;corrected þ Rcond;hs Q air =2 ð39Þ
Q air ¼ V heater Iheater
ð0:3461T HS av g
6:7736Þ ð31Þ
Finally; fan power, Nusselt number, and the Fanning friction factor
where V and I are the voltage and the current supplied to the heater.
were evaluated as in (25), (27), and (28), respectively.
The expression in (31) was calculated by the LabView software in
real time during the experiments and its value was set to
4.3. Error analysis
20 W ± 0.1 W or 60 W ± 0.5 W during the steady state.
The mass flow rate of air through the wind tunnel is calculated
In this study, a standard error analysis [27] was utilized to
by using the air velocity measurement at the discharge of the cir-
quantify the uncertainties of the derived parameters. The uncer-
cular duct. The calculation of the Reynolds number of flow through
tainties of the sensors and the power supply, documented by the
the circular duct yielded that the flow through the duct was in the
manufacturers, are listed in Table 2.
transition region for the low air flow rates and in the turbulent
Assuming that a, b, c . . . would be the sensor measurements or
region for medium to high air flow rates investigated. Therefore,
some other derived parameter with the given or calculated uncer-
the velocity profile at the outlet of the circular duct was predicted
tainties of ea, eb, ec, . . ., the uncertainty of a derived parameter, f,
with the power law velocity profile for turbulent flow [26] given as
given in the functional form of f = f(a, b, c, . . .), would be
uðrÞ ¼ umax ð1
r=RÞ1=n ð32Þ sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

2
2
2
@f @f @f
where umax is the maximum velocity at the center of the outlet of df ¼ ea þ eb þ ec þ . . . ð40Þ
@a @b @c
the duct, measured with the velocity probe, and u(r) is the velocity
profile with respect to the radius. After integrating (32) over area, The uncertainties of the reported Nusselt numbers vary from 2 to
the relation between the average and maximum velocities at the 9%. The largest contributors to the uncertainties of the Nusselt num-
circular duct outlet, uduct and umax, becomes: bers are the uncertainties of the air inlet temperature (±0.3 °C), the
average heat sink temperature (±0.18 °C) and the air outlet temper-
 duct
u 2n2
¼ ð33Þ ature (±0.17 °C) measurements. The uncertainties in the Nusselt
umax ðn þ 1Þð2n þ 1Þ numbers increase with increasing air flow rate because the convec-
The value of n is taken as 7, which satisfies a wide range of flow con- tive heat transfer coefficient, which is an independent parameter of
ditions. The air mass flow rate through the wind tunnel is then cal- the Nusselt number, is a function of DTconv, defined as in (24). As the
culated as air flow rate is increased, DTconv decreases, while its uncertainty,
relative to its absolute value, increases.
_ a ¼ q@T a;o u
m  duct Aduct ð34Þ The most significant source of uncertainty for the reported fric-
tion coefficients are the uncertainties of the pressure transducers,
where Aduct = p D2/4, and D is 44 mm.
The average air velocity through the finned section of the heat
sink is evaluated as in (17). The definition of the experimental Table 2
average Reynolds number is the same as (21). Sensor uncertainties.
The average convection coefficient is Sensor Uncertainty

Q air T-type thermocouples ±0.5 °C

hL ¼ ð35Þ
Aw DT conv Differential pressure transducer (Omega PX653-0.25D5V) ±0.15 Pa
Differential pressure transducer (Unik 5000) ±2.8 Pa
where the temperature difference that drives the convective heat Velocity probe (Velocicalc 9565) ±1.5%
Power supply voltage and current (Sorensen XTR 150-5.6) ±0.5%
transfer is given in (24).
402 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
which are constant values for each transducer. As the air flow rate
is increased, the relative values of the uncertainties decrease com-
pared to the absolute values of the measurements. In order to keep
the uncertainty of the friction coefficients within reasonable limits,
two pressure transducers were utilized: OMEGA PX653 for the low
air flow rates and UNIK 5000 for the high air flow rates (Table 2).
Thus, the uncertainties in the experimental friction factors could
be maintained within 1.5–12% for the measurements with the
OMEGA PX653, and 2.5–20% for the measurements with the UNIK
5000 pressure transducer.
5. Results and discussion
Numerical simulations of the OF HS designs were performed
using ANSYS Fluent 16.2. The heater power was taken as 20 W
for the entire heat sink footprint. A wide range of air flow rates
were simulated with the periodic solution domains, while only
three air flow rates were simulated with the full domain computa-
tional models due to extended run time. The numerical simulations
were experimentally validated on the desktop wind tunnel exper-
imental setup. 20 W and 60 W heater powers were experimented.
The heat loss from the test section was calculated and immediately
compensated during the experiments to match the experimental
and the numerical boundary conditions as good as possible. For
performance benchmarking purposes, the conventional SC HS
design was also tested for both heater powers for the entire range
of air flow rates.
5.1. Validation of the experimental setup and experimental
repeatability
The thermal and hydraulic performances of the SC HS were val-
idated against the well known correlations in the literature so as to
ensure the reliability of the experimental setup. The comparison of
the experimental SC HS data and correlations is presented in Fig. 8.
The theoretical hydrodynamic entrance length approximation
for laminar flow, LH = Re.Dh/20, given by Kays et al. [21] estimates
that the air flow through the SC HS becomes hydrodynamically
fully developed after half of the length of the heat sink for
Re = 200. For Re = 400 onwards, the flow through the entire length
of the SC HS remains in the hydrodynamically developing regime.
The graphical data, provided by Curr et al. [28] for developing flow
in square ducts, was converted to f.Re multiplications as a function
of x+, the dimensionless axial distance in the direction of the flow
30
Nu_L (exp) current study
Nu_L Sieder & Tate (41)
25 Nu_L Dittus & Boelter (42)
f_F Curr et al. [28]
20 f_F (exp) current study
NuL
15
10
5 Fig. 11 shows that the differences between the experimental
0 0.001
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Re
Fig. 8. Comparison of experimental Nusselt numbers and friction factors of straight
channel heat sink with well-known correlations.
for the hydrodynamic entrance region x+ = Lch/Dh.Re, by Shah and
London [3]. The friction factors measured with the present exper-
imental facility agreed with those predicted by Curr et al. [28] very
well for the entire range of air flow rates.
The thermal entrance length LT for laminar flow through ducts
is approximated as LT = Re.Dh.Pr/20. Since the Prandtl number for
air flow is approximately 0.7, the thermal entrance length is
shorter than the hydrodynamic entrance length. For the combined
entrance length, NuL was given by Sieder and Tate [29] as

0:33
0:14
RePrD lf
NuL ¼ 1:86 ð41Þ
Lch lw
Eq. (41) is valid for simultaneously developing flows when
0.60  Pr  5 and 0.0044  lf/lw  9.75. For Reynolds numbers
above 2300, Dittus-Boelter equation can be used to determine the
NuL [30].
NuL ¼ 0:023Re0:8 Pr0:4 ð42Þ
Finally, to ensure that the data obtained with the compact wind
tunnel experimental setup were free from random errors, the entire
sets of experiments were repeated. The performance parameters
obtained from both pairs of data sets are presented in Fig. 9. It
was observed that the deviations between each pair of data sets
were within acceptable limits, within the experimental
uncertainties.
5.2. Validation of the numerical results
Fig. 10 shows that the numerical junction temperatures of the
periodic computational domains were observed to match the
experimental measurements with reasonable accuracy. However,
NuL and fF were overpredicted by the periodic computational
domains as can be seen in Fig. 11.
The numerical methodology utilized for the simulations of the
OF HS was already validated experimentally by the present authors
for the cross-connected alternating converging-diverging channel
heat sink with the use of the same experimental facility [18], in
which case no systematic deviation between the numerical and
the experimental performance parameters was observed. Consid-
ering the fact that the experimental facility is able to produce reli-
able data (Figs. 8 and 9), the suspicion was given to the validity of
the fully periodic flow assumption rather than to the accuracy of
the numerical and the experimental data produced.
Mou et al. [31] and Fan et al. [32] performed numerical investi-
gations on liquid-cooled OF HS in micro and minichannel size
within wall bounded flow domains. The authors reported that
1
the periodicity of the secondary flows was not maintained in the
vicinity of the edges due to the migration of the flow in the direc-
tion of the oblique channels. In contrast, the secondary channels in
the middle region were reported to have relatively uniform distri-
0.1 bution of the secondary flow rates, preserving the periodic flow
conditions. Therefore, in the current investigation, a deviation
was already anticipated between the experimental and numerical
fF
data obtained from the single channel, periodic computational
domains of the OF HS; however, the extent of the migration of
0.01 the air flow and its adverse effects on the overall heat transfer
and the pressure drop performances were not yet clear.
and numerical NuL and fF are more pronounced for the 30° OF
HS, compared to the 45° OF HS. It can be commented that a lower
oblique angle, which makes a secondary channel more inline with
the main channel, is capable of inducing higher rates of secondary
flows, hence escalating the flow migration in the direction of the
oblique channels. A stronger flow migration from one side of the
heat sink (draining edge) to the other side (filling edge) will disturb
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 403

35 0.7
30deg OF HS Set 1 (a) (b) 30deg OF HS Set 1
30deg OF HS Set 2 30deg OF HS Set 2
30 0.6
45deg OF HS Set 1 45deg OF HS Set 1
45deg OF HS Set 2
45deg OF HS Set 2
25 0.5 SC HS Set 1
SC HS Set 1 SC HS Set 2
SC HS Set 2
20 0.4
NuL

fF
15 0.3

10 0.2

5 0.1

0 0.0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Re Re

Fig. 9. Experimental repeatability of straight channel, 30° and 45° oblique-finned heat sink data.

70 To support these claims on the flow migration and the period-

45deg OF HS (num, periodic) icity of the secondary flows through the OF HS, the need for a full
65
45deg OF HS (exp) domain solution arouse. Due to the high computational load and
60 30deg OF HS (num, periodic) long run time, each OF HS configuration was simulated in full
30deg OF HS (exp) domain at three Reynolds numbers. The performance parameters
55 obtained from the full domain numerical simulations are pre-
50 sented in Fig. 11 along with those obtained from the periodic com-
Tj [°C]

putational domains and the experiments. It was observed that the

45 full domain simulations, especially of the 30° OF HS, could success-
40 fully capture the experimental Nusselt numbers and friction fac-
tors with reasonable accuracy both in trend and magnitude.
35
30
5.3. Distribution of air flow rate through the main and secondary
25 channels
20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 The full domain simulation results were investigated to quanti-
Re tatively identify the severity of the flow migration on the unifor-
mity of the air flow rates through the main channels and the
Fig. 10. Numerical & experimental junction temperatures of 30° and 45° oblique- secondary channels in the spanwise direction of the OF HS.
finned heat sink. The air mass flow rates at the heat sink inlet and heat sink out-
let of each of the main channels were calculated as in (16) at the
respective boundaries of the full domain OF HS simulation model,
the uniformity of the air flow rate distribution in the lateral direc- shown in Fig. 5.
tion and reduce the number of channels that follow the periodic Fig. 12 shows the distribution of the air flow rates at the heat
flow conditions. sink inlet and outlet at low, moderate and high Reynolds numbers.

50 0.18
30deg OF HS (num, periodic) 30deg OF HS (num, periodic)
45 30deg OF HS (num, full domain) (a) 0.16 (b) 30deg OF HS (num, full domain)
30deg OF HS (exp) 30deg OF HS (exp)
40 45deg OF HS (num, periodic)
0.14 45deg OF HS (num, periodic)
45deg OF HS (num, full domain) 45deg OF HS (num, full domain)
35 45deg OF HS (exp) 45deg OF HS (exp)
0.12
30
0.1
Nu L

fF

25
0.08
20
0.06
15
10 0.04

5 0.02

0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Re Re

Fig. 11. Numerical and experimental (a) Nusselt numbers and (b) Fanning friction factors of 30° and 45° OF HS.
404 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
While the 45° OF HS did not show a significantly non-uniform inlet
and outlet mass flow rate distributions in the spanwise direction,
the 30° OF HS experienced approximately 14% decrease and 40%
increase in the air flow rates at the heat sink inlet and outlet,
respectively, for Re = 3117.
m_ a;sec is the cumulative secondary mass flow rate of air, migrat-
ing from one main channel to the next through the oblique chan-
nels. m _ a;sec for any fin row was calculated through the plane,
passing through the secondary channels of that particular fin
row, extending from the heat sink inlet to the heat sink outlet, as
shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 14 shows the distribution of m _ a;sec in the
spanwise direction of the (a) 45° and (b) 30° OF HS at various Rey-
nolds numbers. It was observed that certain portion of the chan-
nels in the middle section of the OF HS sustained almost
identical cumulative secondary flow rates, unaware of the exis-
tence of the edges of the heat sink. The uniformity of the secondary
flow rates was much worse near the edges, similar to the findings
of DeJong and Jacobi [10] on the wall bounded flows through lou-
vered fin arrays. The 45° OF HS was always capable of maintaining
a more uniform secondary flow rate distribution compared to the
30° OF HS in the spanwise direction since the cumulative sec-
ondary flow rates of the former were much lower than those of
the latter. As the Reynolds number increased, the severity of the
flow migration increased significantly for the 30° OF HS; therefore,
the number of channels, through which the uniformity of the sec-
ondary flow rates was maintained, decreased.
The results obtained from the periodic computational models
are free from the edge effects, which reduce the cumulative sec-
ondary flow rates in the vicinity of the edges. Therefore, the peri-
odic computational models cannot predict the adverse effects of
flow migration on Nusselt numbers, and yield higher Nusselt num-
bers compared to the experimental data and the full domain
numerical simulation results.
5.4. Pressure, velocity and temperature fields in the periodic region of
the oblique-finned heat sink
To understand the thermal and hydraulic performance charac-
teristics of air flow through the OF HS, the flow and temperature
fields were studied in detail. Due to the superior grid quality, the
single channel, periodic computational models were studied to
obtain better resolution. The velocity, temperature, and pressure
contours of the 45° and 30° OF HS designs, are presented in
Figs. 15–17, respectively. The contour plots were taken at the
0.0006
Re=3117 inlet
(a) Re=1865 inlet
0.0005
Re=1239 inlet
air mass flow rate [kg/s]
0.0004 θ=45°
0.0003
0.0002
0.0001
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Channel number
Fig. 12. Air flow rate distributions at heat sink inlet and outlet of (a) 30° and (b) 45° OF HS.
mid-channel height at identical air inlet velocities, corresponding
to Re = 989.
Fig. 15 shows that the 45° OF HS has a higher flow velocity in
the main channel compared to the 30° OF HS, since 30° oblique
channels carry higher rates of secondary flows. As can be observed
from the zoom-in version of Fig. 15a, a large portion of the sec-
ondary channels of the 45° OF HS is occupied by a flow field at a
lower velocity. These lower velocity regions are the vortices,
induced by flow separation, the details of which will be studied
in the next section. The vortices within the secondary channels
of the 30° OF HS are smaller in size and stretched, therefore they
do not block the secondary channels and allow higher rates of sec-
ondary flows to be induced.
Fig. 16 shows that the 30° OF HS is capable of maintaining lower
fin temperatures compared to the 45° OF HS at equal air flow rates
and heater powers. Based on the observations of the velocity and
temperature fields, it can be commented that the heat transfer
enhancement depends strongly on the secondary flow rates. The
air temperature within the secondary channels of the 45° OF HS
(Fig. 16a) is higher than that of the 30° OF HS (Fig. 16b) due to
the fact that the advection performance of the former is lower than
the latter due to insufficient amount of secondary flow rates. A
higher air flow temperature requires a higher fin temperature for
the same heat transfer rate to be sustained. Moreover, the 30° OF
HS enables a more uniform air temperature build up in the stream-
wise direction compared to the 45° OF HS by inducing stronger
flow mixing, which is again a result of the higher rates of secondary
flows.
Finally, Fig. 17 shows that similar to the heat transfer enhance-
ment, the pressure drop penalty is also proportional to the sec-
ondary flow rates. For identical outlet pressures, the inlet
pressure of the 30° OF HS (Fig. 17b) is 26.3 Pa, whereas it is
13.3 Pa for the 45° OF HS (Fig. 17a). Sustaining flow momentum
in a direction other than the natural direction of the flow increases
the pressure drop penalty, along with the heat transfer enhance-
ment. As could be observed from the zoom-in images in Fig. 17,
there exist adverse pressure gradients around the edges of the obli-
que fins, where the boundary layer disruption and flow separation
occurs.
This section reported merely the preliminary observations of
the flow and temperature fields of the planar, air-cooled OF HS in
the periodic region. More detailed explanations will be given in
the following section to fully understand the coupled characteris-
tics of the air flow and heat transfer.
0.0006
Re=3117 outlet Re=3117 inlet Re=3117 outlet
Re=1865 outlet (b) Re=1865 inlet Re=1865 outlet
0.0005 Re=1239 inlet Re=1239 outlet
Re=1239 outlet
air mass flow rate [kg/s]
0.0004 θ=30°
0.0003
0.0002
0.0001
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Channel number
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 405

…
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
…
Fig. 13. Secondary flow planes.

0.00022 0.001
Re=3117
θ=45º (a) Re=3117
θ=30º (b)
cumulative secondary flow rate [kg/s]

cumulative secondary flow rate [kg/s]

0.0009
Re=1865 Re=1865
0.00018
Re=1239 0.0008 Re=1239
0.0007
0.00014
0.0006
0.0001 0.0005
0.0004
0.00006
0.0003
0.0002
0.00002
0.0001
-0.00002 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Fin rows Fin rows

Fig. 14. Cumulative secondary flow rates w.r.t. the fin rows.

(a)
inlet

(b)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 15. Velocity contours of flow through (a) 45° and (b) 30° oblique-finned heat sink.

(a)
inlet

(b)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 16. Temperature contours of flow and fins through (a) 45° and (b) 30° oblique-finned heat sink.
406 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

(a)
inlet
(b)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 17. Pressure contours of flow through (a) 45° and (b) 30° oblique-finned heat sink.

5.5. Thermal and hydraulic performances number regime. Beyond that point, the pressure drop penalty Ef
continued to increase consistently, maintaining its superior values
In order to evaluate the heat transfer enhancement and the over ENu until the highest air flow rate investigated. Meanwhile,
pressure drop penalty of the 30° and 45° OF HS designs relative beyond the second ENu-Ef cross-over, a decrease in the ENu was
to the SC HS, the Nusselt number enhancement ratio ENu and the observed for the 30° and 45° OF HS designs.
pressure drop penalty Ef were calculated as in (43) and (44), From Fig. 18, the Rec-o were observed to lie between 239 and
respectively. The single channel, periodic computational domain 489 for the 45° OF HS, and 489 and 739 for the 30° OF HS. In the
simulation results of the OF HS and the experimental SC HS data previous section, the secondary flow rates were suspected to be a
were used to evaluate ENu and Ef. The results are presented in crucial parameter, which control the heat transfer and the pressure
Fig. 18. It was observed for both OF HS designs that the pressure drop performances. Therefore, with an intention to validate the
drop penalty Ef exceeded the heat transfer enhancement ENu at observed Rec-o intervals quantitatively, a secondary flow ratio
very low Reynolds numbers; however, as the air flow rate was was defined as the ratio of the cumulative secondary flow rate
increased, ENu was observed to exceed Ef. Although the exact val- m _ a;i as
_ a;sec to the inlet air flow rate m
ues of the Reynolds numbers at which ENu-Ef cross-over occurred
were not known for neither of the OF HS designs; the intervals in
_ a;sec
m
secondary flow ratio ¼ ð45Þ
which those particular Reynolds numbers lied were known. This m_ a;i
particular Reynolds numbers, which caused the ENu-Ef cross-over,
The single channel, periodic computational domain simulation
has been named as the cross-over Reynolds number Rec-o.
 results were used for the calculation of (45). The secondary flow
NuLOF HS  ratios of the 30° and 45° OF HS designs were presented in the right
ENu ¼ ð43Þ
NuLSC HS Re side vertical axis of Fig. 18 as percentage, along with ENu and Ef
curves, for ease of observation. The secondary flow ratios showed

f F OF HS  an increasing-decreasing-increasing trend for both 30° and 45° OF
Ef ¼  ð44Þ HS designs. This trend is much clearer for the 30° OF HS since it is
f F SC HS 
Re capable of inducing higher rates of secondary flows, for which the
secondary flow ratio is above 100% for the entire range of inlet air
For a wide range of air flow rates, ENu maintained its superior posi-
flow rates, while the 45° OF HS is not capable of inducing cumula-
tion over Ef until another cross-over occurred at the high Reynolds
tive secondary flow rates higher than the inlet air flow rates. It was
observed that the ENu-Ef cross-over occurred within the Reynolds
5.0 450 number intervals in which the secondary flow ratios started show-
30deg OF HS E_Nu ing a decreasing trend. The decrease in the percent secondary flow
30deg OF HS E_f
4.5 45deg OF HS E_Nu 400 ratios at the aforementioned Reynolds numbers can also be read
45deg OF HS E_f
30deg OF HS sec flow ratio from Table 3.
4.0 350
45deg OF HS sec flow ratio Some flow phenomena, triggered at Rec-o, cause a dramatic
increase in the heat transfer performance, while a decrease in the
secondary flow ratio (%)

3.5
300 secondary flow rates is observed, accompanied by a negligible
3.0 increase in the pressure drop penalty. The combined effect of these
250
Ef, ENu

phenomena emerges as a heat transfer enhancement, exceeding

2.5
the pressure drop penalty of the OF HS relative to the SC HS. To
200
2.0
150
1.5
Table 3
1.0 100
Secondary flow ratios of 45° and 30° OF HS w.r.t. Reynolds number.

0.5 50 Secondary flow ratio (%)

Re 45° OF HS 30° OF HS
0.0 0
177 70 213
114
177
239
489
739
989
1239
1865
2490
3116
3741

239 71 262
489 55 280
Re 739 38 245
989 31 233
Fig. 18. Heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop penalty of 30° and 45° 1239 27 242
oblique-finned heat sink w.r.t. Reynolds number.
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
understand the reason for such thermal and hydraulic performance
characteristics, the flow field around the 30° and 45° OF HS designs
were studied in detail at Reynolds numbers just below and above
the respective Rec-o of each design.
5.6. Analysis of the secondary flow field
The secondary flow field analysis was performed around the
oblique fins #13, located at the halfway in the streamwise direc-
tion of each OF HS configuration. Therefore, the flow fields, pre-
sented in Figs. 19 and 20, are free from entrance effects.
Fig. 19a shows the velocity vectors around a 45° oblique fin at
the mid-channel height at Re = 239 and Re = 489, just below and
above Rec-o. At Re = 239, the velocity field shows a very weak vor-
tex generated within the secondary channel due to the separation
of the flow over the separation edge. At Re = 489, however, the vor-
tex within the secondary channel becomes much larger and stron-
ger. The effect of this vortex on the flow field is apparent from the
streamlines (Fig. 19b), starting from the indicated surface, adjacent
to the trailing edge. When the Reynolds number is below Rec-o, the
streamlines starting from the downstream of the 45° oblique fin
mix with the main stream without any disturbance. However,
when Rec-o is exceeded, the vortex within the secondary channel
becomes powerful enough to create an adverse pressure gradient
and draw the air flow from the downstream of the fin back into
the oblique channel. The portion of the air flow, drawn back into
the secondary channel, follows a circular path around the vortex
and then joins back to the main stream, removing the high temper-
ature air away from the fin wall.
The explanation for the decreasing secondary flow rates with
increasing inlet air flow rate is trivial: once Rec-o is exceeded and
θ=45°, Re=239<Re c-o
Top view
Flow direction
trailing
Top view
Streamline starting surface
Side view
Fig. 19. Flow field around 45° oblique fin below and above cross-over Reynolds number.
407
the vortex within the secondary channel becomes larger and stron-
ger, it reduces the effective oblique channel width, through which
the secondary flow can pass. As a result, the quantity of the portion
of the flow, diverted from its natural flowing direction, is reduced.
Thus, the pressure drop penalty becomes relatively lower than the
heat transfer enhancement, which is a result of improved advec-
tion due to the induced vortex.
Similar secondary flow behavior was observed for the 30° OF HS
with slight differences. As can be observed from Fig. 20a, a lower
oblique angle of 30° already causes a flow separation and a very
weak vortex below Rec-o, similar to its 45° counterpart. This vortex
comprises air streams from the downstream of the fin even below
Rec-o; however, it is not strong and large enough to reduce the sec-
ondary flow ratio. Therefore, Rec-o for the 30° OF HS cannot be
lower than Re = 489. It can be observed that the vortex becomes
very strong above Re = 489 and below Re = 739, where it becomes
large enough to reduce the secondary flow ratio and improve the
advection heat transfer.
5.7. Local heat transfer performance
The contribution of the vortices to convective heat transfer can
be quantitatively studied by comparing the distribution of local
convection coefficient hlocal over the oblique fin walls for Reynolds
numbers below and above Rec-o. The local convection coefficient is
defined as
q00local
hlocal ¼ ð46Þ
T w;local
T ref
The local wall heat flux and the local wall temperature can only be
downloaded from ANSYS Fluent simulation results as long as the
θ=45°, Re=489>Re c-o
(a)
Flow direction
edge
(b)
separation leading
edge edge
(c)
408 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
θ=30°, Re=489<Re c-o
Top view
Flow direction
trailing
edge
Top view
Streamline starting surface
Side view
Fig. 20. Flow field around 30° oblique fin below and above cross-over Reynolds number.
mesh between the solid and fluid domains are conformal, in
another word: matching, so that the variables of Eq. (46) can be
accurately calculated across the solid-fluid interface. In this regard,
the numerical simulation results of the periodic, single channel
computational domains of the 30° and 45° OF HS were not useful
due to the non-conformal mesh interface between the heat sink
and the air domain. To overcome this problem, merely the air flow
domains were remodeled without the heat sink, the fin walls were
attended with constant wall temperature of 60 °C, and the simula-
tions were repeated for the 30° and 45° OF HS designs at Reynolds
numbers below and above Rec-o. Hence, the thermal boundary con-
dition was directly introduced to the fluid domain mesh elements
for an accurate post-processing of the data.
The reference temperature selection is important in local con-
vection coefficient calculations [33]. If a very fine boundary layer
mesh is used at the wall, the wall adjacent fluid temperature can-
not be used as Tref. Since the first layer thickness of the mesh is
very small, the wall adjacent temperature would be very close to
the wall temperature, resulting in an unrealistically high hlocal
value. Therefore, in this study, the average bulk temperature of
the air domain was taken as Tref. As a final note, the entire param-
eters of Eq. (46) were calculated at the mid-channel height, and
hlocal data was calculated for the fins #13, which are located at
the halfway in the streamwise direction. Therefore, the flow fields
were free from the entrance effects.
Fig. 21 shows hlocal over the four walls of the 30° and 45° obli-
que fins. The arrows shown around the oblique fins in the legend
represent both the flow direction and the distance on the fin walls,
located on the abscissa of each subplot.
When the Reynolds number exceeds Rec-o, the velocity of the air
flow in the main channel increases, the boundary layer thicknesses
θ=30°, Re=739>Re c-o
(a)
Flow direction
(b)
separation leading
edge edge
(c)
are reduced, and hlocal increases regularly on Surface #1 and #2 for
both OF HS designs.
The vortices induced within the secondary channels after
exceeding Rec-o, act as obstacles against the secondary flows,
resulting in a decrease in the secondary flow ratios. However, the
vortices induced within the secondary channels decrease the effec-
tive channel width, especially at the inlet of the secondary chan-
nels, resulting in a local increase in the flow velocity. Thus, hlocal
on Surface #3 shows a slightly better improvement at the entry
of the channel due to increased flow velocity and reduced bound-
ary layer thicknesses.
Finally, the effect of the vortices on convective heat transfer can
be observed from hlocal on Surface #4. Upon exceeding Rec-o, hlocal
on Surface #4 increases not only in magnitude, but also in trend,
the increase making a peak around the Corners: A & B. Once the
downstream flow is drawn back into the secondary channel, hlocal
makes the first peak at Corner-B. The increase in hlocal at Corner-
B is very much clear especially for the 45° OF HS, while a trendwise
increase in hlocal can be observed for the 30° OF HS. hlocal also
shows a slight increase at Corner-A on Surface #4, where the vor-
tex within the secondary channel separates from Surface#4 and
removes the heat away from the surface perpendicularly.
5.8. Advection characteristics
A better flow mixing improves the advection characteristics of a
heat sink. It is possible to study the flow mixing characteristics of a
heat sink with qualitative methods. The trajectories of the massless
particles, released at the inlet of the flow domain, can be tracked at
different locations in the streamwise direction. These trajectories
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 409

Corner-A θ=45° Corner-A θ=30°

1 1
4 4 4
3 4 3

2 2
Corner-B Corner-B

A
A B B

Fig. 21. Distributions of local convection coefficient on 30° and 45° oblique fin walls below and above cross-over Reynolds numbers.

are then plotted at cross sections of interest in the downstream,
preferably at the heat sink outlet, for a qualitative understanding
of the system [34,35]. These maps are known as the Poincaré sec-
tions and they provide qualitative information whether the flow
regime is laminar, transitional or chaotic [36]. For steady state
flows, the pathlines of the particle trajectories coincide with the
streamlines [26], therefore tracking the coordinates of the stream-
lines at different locations in the downstream would yield the
same results as tracing the trajectories of massless particles.
The streamline trajectories of the 30° and 45° OF HS designs at
Reynolds numbers below and above Rec-o, were plotted at heat sink
inlet and outlet as Poincaré sections in Figs. 22 and 23.
The streamlines released at the heat sink inlet in Fig. 22a were
distinguished with blue and red colors for the upper and lower
halves of the channels, respectively. Fig. 22b–e present the loca-
tions of the streamlines at the heat sink outlet. It was observed that
there occurred no flow mixing between the upper and lower halves
of the air flow domains through the 30° and 45° OF HS designs. The
two groups of particles did not mix with each other as if there
existed a membrane at the mid-channel height. Although, Fig. 22
gives the impression that there was not effective flow mixing
through the channels, flow mixing actually occurred within the
upper and lower halves of the channels. When the streamlines
were initialized merely from the upper and lower one eighth por-
tions of the channels at the heat sink inlet, the Poincaré sections in
Fig. 23b–e at the heat sink outlets showed that streamlines actually
dispersed within their respective halves of the channel. The flow
mixing was observed to be more pronounced for the 30° OF HS
compared to the 45° OF HS, which can be explained by the higher
secondary flow rates and stronger vortices of the former than those
of the latter. On the other hand, exceeding Rec-o improved the flow
mixing characteristics of the 45° OF HS more significantly. Because,
below Rec-o, the 45° OF HS could not induce a vortex strong enough
to draw streams of air from the downstream of the fin back into the
410 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

Fig. 22. Poincaré maps at the inlet and outlets of 30° and 45° oblique-finned heat sink below and above cross-over Reynolds numbers.

Fig. 23. Poincaré maps at the inlet and outlets of 30° and 45° oblique-finned heat sink below and above cross-over Reynolds numbers (streamlines were initialized from the
top and bottom 1/8th portion of heat sink inlet).

secondary channel (Fig. 19c), while the 30° OF HS could do so
(Fig. 20c).
The Poincaré sections presented in Figs. 22 and 23 also provide
information on the flow regimes through the OF HS. To distinguish
between the regular or chaotic advection regimes, the trajectories
of the adjacent particles/streamlines should be tracked. If the
neighboring particles/streamlines maintain their relative positions
with respect to each other as they advance in the streamwise
direction, the advection regime is said to be regular. If the parti-
cles/streamlines disperse to the flow cross sectional area randomly,
then the advection regime is termed as chaotic [36]. The streamli-
nes, released around the mid-channel height of the heat sink inlet
in Fig. 22a, were observed in the Poincaré sections at the OF HS
outlets to have stayed relatively close to each other, which sug-
gests that the advection regime was closer to being regular. As
for the streamlines starting from the top and bottom one eighth
portions of the heat sink inlet of the 30° OF HS as in Fig. 23a, a
random distribution was observed at the Poincaré sections at the
heat sink outlet in Fig. 23d-e. On the other hand, the Poincaré sec-
tions at the heat sink outlets of the 45° OF HS in Fig. 23b-c did not
show a streamline distribution as random as that of the 30° OF HS.
The relative positions of the streamlines at the heat sink inlet were
still observable at the heat sink outlet of the 45° OF HS. It can be
said that the heat transfer enhancement of the 30° OF HS is based
not only on the repetitive thermal boundary layer disruption over
the oblique fin sections, but also on chaotic advection. The chaotic
advection regime improves flow mixing significantly and enables a
uniform temperature build up (Fig. 16b).
5.9. Secondary flow field
Fig. 24 shows the velocity and temperature fields of the 30° and
45° OF HS designs, captured from the full domain simulation
results in the high Reynolds number regime. At Re = 3117, the
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
θ=30°, Re=3117
Filling
edge
Middle
channel
(periodic
behavior)
Draining
edge
Flow direction
Fig. 24. Flow and temperature fields at filling edge, draining edge, and central portions of 30° and 45° oblique-finned heat sink at high Reynolds numbers.
pressure drop penalties of both of the OF HS designs exceed their
heat transfer enhancement relative to the SC HS (Fig. 18).
It was observed that a pair of counter rotating vortices were
induced in the secondary channels of the 45° OF HS in the vicinity
of the draining and filling edges. Since sufficient rates of secondary
flow rates could not be induced, the vortex induced right after the
separation edge of the 45° OF HS had to be counter-balanced by a
smaller vortex within the secondary channel. The counter rotating
pair of vortices created recirculation regions, trapping higher tem-
perature air within the secondary channels, compromising the
advection performance, as can be observed from the temperature
contour. As for the 30° OF HS, a counter rotating vortex was not
visible since the 30° oblique channels were more inline with the
main channels and could still sustain small amounts of secondary
flow rates at the draining and filling edges (Fig. 14b). At Re = 3117,
a significant amount of flow migrates from the draining edge to the
filling edge, causing an almost entirely secondary channel oriented
flow in the periodic region of the heat sink and improving the heat
transfer performance significantly. However, lower secondary air
flow rates in the near edge region compromises the heat transfer
enhancement by compromising the advection performance.
5.10. Thermal-hydraulic performance factor
Evaluating the heat transfer enhancement ratio ENu of the OF HS
relative to the SC HS helped to discover the cross-over Reynolds
number, beyond which the heat transfer performance of the OF
HS exceeds its pressure drop penalty. However, the heat transfer
enhancement ratio that is calculated at identical mass flow rates
does not represent the real heat transfer enhancement of enhanced
heat transfer surfaces, since they generally induce higher pressure
drop penalties and operate at higher fan/pumping powers. The ref-
erence heat transfer surface would have performed better, if it
were allowed to operate at identical fan/pumping power as the
enhanced heat transfer surface. Therefore, for a fair evaluation of
the overall performance of an enhanced heat transfer surface, a
411
θ=45°, Re=3117
Counter
rotating
vortices
Counter
rotating
vortices
constraint other than the identical mass flow rate should be
applied, such as identical pressure drop or identical fan/pumping
power, as suggested by Webb and Kim [5]. In addition, the perfor-
mance evaluation criterion has to be selected, as well, since the
effectiveness of an enhanced heat transfer surface could be charac-
terized by a variety of definitions [37] such as:
 reduced surface area (for a given heat duty and fan/pumping
power)
 increased heat duty (for identical surface area and fan/pumping
power)
 reduced fan/pumping power (for a given heat duty and surface
area)
The most commonly used overall performance parameter in the
literature [4,38–45], given in (47), calculates the ratio of the Nus-
selt numbers of an enhanced ‘‘e” heat transfer surface to a refer-
ence ‘‘0” one at identical fan powers. In other words, it calculates
how good the heat transfer performance of an enhanced heat
sink/exchanger is relative to a reference one, once the former is
operated at identical fan/pumping power as the latter. The overall
performance parameter will hereafter be referred to as the
thermal-hydraulic performance factor gth for conciseness.

 Nue 
Nue  Nu0 
gth ¼ ¼   Re1=3 ð47Þ
Nu0 pfan fe
f 0
Re
To calculate the thermal-hydraulic performance factor, the average
Nusselt numbers and friction factors of the reference surface should
be available in the form of tabulated data or, more conveniently, in
the form of correlations; while the performance data for the
enhanced surface can be obtained either via numerical simulations
or via experiments [46].
In this study, the thermal-hydraulic performance factors
calculated by (47) were intended to be validated. For this purpose,
performance factors were directly evaluated as the ratios of
412 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

experimental Nusselt numbers of the OF HS and SC HS at identical

fan powers. First, the experimental NuL data of the SC HS were cor-
related against the fan power as

Nu0 ðpfan Þ ¼ 13:69p0:3941

fan þ 2:79 ð48Þ

Next, the performance factors were calculated using the expression,

given in (49). Nue values and the fan powers of the OF HS were
taken pointwise from the experimental data, while the Nu0 values
that corresponded to the fan powers of the OF HS were evaluated
in the denominator.

Nue  Nue ðpfan Þ
gth;v alidation ¼ ¼ ð49Þ
Nu0 pfan 13:69p0:3941
fan þ 2:79

The two sets of thermal-hydraulic performance data were plotted in

Fig. 25. It was observed that the conventional expression (47)
approximated the validated performance factors (49) more accu-
rately for moderate to high Reynolds numbers; however, it under-
predicted for low Reynolds numbers. Eq. (47) is widely used in
Fig. 26. Derivation parameters of thermal-hydraulic performance factor.
the literature without an emphasis on the Reynolds number range.
During the derivation of the overall performance factor for the
roughened tubes relative to the smooth tubes, Webb [37] utilized
the friction factor and Stanton number correlations for turbulent The Reynolds numbers Ree and Re0, indicated in Fig. 26, are selected
flow through roughened tubes, reported in their previous papers in a way that the fan power of the enhanced heat sink at Ree is equal
[47,48] for Reynolds numbers well beyond 10,000. Therefore, an to the fan power of the reference heat sink at Re0. Rewriting Eq. (28)
overall performance parameter in the form of Eq. (47) may not for DP and substituting it into (25), fan power can be written as
always hold true for the laminar regime since the correlations for  3 fAflow cr-sec Lhs
2qu
the reference and the enhanced heat transfer surfaces may differ. pfan ¼ ð52Þ
Dh
Therefore, in this section, a low Reynolds number correction to
Eq. (47) was made. A general form of the thermal-hydraulic perfor- In a case where the enhanced and the reference heat sink geome-
mance factor expression, previously derived by Fan et al. [46] for tries are geometrically similar (Aflow cr-sec, Lhs, Dh) and the fluid
various constraints, was rederived for the case at hand for identical properties (q, l) are comparable, identical fan power condition
fan power constraint using a simpler, graphical procedure, which for the enhanced and the reference heat sink designs can be written
was explained below. as
Fig. 26 shows the hypothetical trends of the friction factors and
f e ðRee Þ:Re3e ¼ f 0 ðRe0 Þ:Re30 ð53Þ
the Nusselt numbers for any reference and enhanced heat sink
design, represented with the subscripts ‘‘0” and ‘‘e”, respectively; The thermal-hydraulic performance factor, defined as the ratio of
for two consecutive Reynolds numbers: Ree and Re0. The friction the Nusselt numbers of the enhanced heat sink design to those of
factors and the Nusselt numbers of the reference geometry are the reference one at identical fan powers [5] can be expressed
given by the following correlations: according to Fig. 26 as:
f 0 ¼ c1 Rem1 ð50Þ Nue ðRee Þ
gth ¼ ð54Þ
Nu0 ðRe0 Þ
m2
Nu0 ¼ c2 Re ð51Þ
Using the chain rule, Eq. (54) can be expanded as
Nue ðRee Þ Nue ðRee Þ Nu0 ðRee Þ
gth ¼ ¼ ð55Þ
Nu0 ðRe0 Þ Nu0 ðRee Þ Nu0 ðRe0 Þ
Substituting Nu0 terms in the second fraction using Eq. (51),
Nue ðRee Þ c2 Rem 2
Nue ðRee Þ=Nu0 ðRee Þ
gth ¼ m2 ¼
e
ð56Þ
Nu0 ðRee Þ c2 Re0
m
c2 Re0 2
m
c2 Ree 2

To be able to express the thermal-hydraulic performance factor as

in (56), the ðRe0 =Ree Þm2 expression should be substituted with
ηth

ηth, validation (Eqn. 49)

ηth, conventional (Eqn. 47)
appropriate terms. Those terms will be obtained from the equal
fan power condition stated in (53). Applying the chain rule to the
friction factors:
f e ðRee Þ f e ðRee Þ f 0 ðRee Þ
¼ ð57Þ
f 0 ðRe0 Þ f 0 ðRee Þ f 0 ðRe0 Þ

If both sides are multiplied by Re3e =Re30 , the equality becomes equal
to unity due to the equal fan power condition. Recollecting,
Ree
f e ðRee Þ f 0 ðRee Þ Re3e
Fig. 25. Comparison of thermal-hydraulic performance factors calculated using ¼1 ð58Þ
conventional expression (47) and validation expression (49).
f 0 ðRee Þ f 0 ðRe0 Þ Re30
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416 413

Substituting f0 terms of the second fraction with Eq. (50), value as 0.161 for low Reynolds numbers, and 0.335 for the high
Reynolds numbers, according to the NuL and fF correlations of the
f e ðRee Þ c1 Rem 1
Re3e
e
m1 ¼1 ð59Þ SC HS experimental data given (62)–(64). The derived expression
f 0 ðRee Þ c1 Re0 Re30 (61) is almost identical to the conventional expression (47) in the
turbulent flow regime; however, the varying heat transfer behavior
From here, Re0 =Ree can be written as
has to be taken into consideration not to misevaluate the thermal-

 1
Re0 f e ðRee Þ 3þm1 hydraulic performance factor at low Reynolds numbers.
¼ ð60Þ Fig. 28 shows the experimental gth (61) of the 30° and 45° OF
Ree f 0 ðRee Þ
HS designs, in comparison with the Nusselt number enhancement
Substituting Eq. (60) into (56), the thermal-hydraulic performance ratios ENu, evaluated at identical air flow rates (43). gth of the 30°
factor becomes OF HS deviate from ENu more significantly compared to the 45° OF

Nue 
HS, due to the fact that the 30° OF HS incurs a higher pressure drop
Nu0  penalty. gth of the 30° and 45° OF HS designs were observed to
Ree
gth;deriv ed ¼
3þm ð61Þ
 m2
experience local maximums within the range of air flow rates
fe 1

f 0 investigated. The maximum gth were observed at moderate Rey-

Ree
The thermal-hydraulic performance factor evaluates the enhance-
ment of the convection coefficient of the OF HS relative to the SC
HS at identical fan powers since the hydraulic diameters were taken
to be equal and the changes in the thermal and transport properties
of the coolant are negligible. The coefficients m1 and m2, should be
substituted from the friction factor and the Nusselt number correla-
tions of the SC HS, which are to be written in the form of (50) and
(51). The experimental data for the SC HS, presented in Fig. 8, were
correlated as
f F 0 ¼ 3:543Re
0:6917
NuL0 ¼ 0:4876Re0:3717 for Re < 2000
NuL0 ¼ 0:023Re0:774 for Re > 2000
Fig. 27 presents the thermal-hydraulic performance factors calcu-
lated using the conventional expression (47), the derived expres-
sion (61) along with the validation expression (49). The horizontal
axis was aptly chosen as Ree since the Nusselt numbers and friction
factors of the SC HS were evaluated at Ree in (62)–(64) for the eval-
uation of the Nusselt number enhancement and pressure drop pen-
alty ratios in (61).
It was observed that the derived expression (61) could predict
the thermal-hydraulic performance factors, evaluated by (49),
accurately for the entire range of Reynolds numbers. The conven-
tional expression (47) takes the value of 0.333 as the power of
the ðf e =f 0 ÞjRee term, while the derived expression calculates this
nolds numbers, around Re = 1500 for the 30° OF HS, and around
Re = 2500 for the 45° OF HS. For higher Reynolds numbers, the
pressure drop penalty increases more significantly than the heat
transfer enhancement, resulting in a decreasing trend in gth.
5.11. Heat sink junction temperature improvement
Although the Nusselt number and the friction factor are the
most commonly used dimensionless performance metrics for the
evaluation and the benchmarking of the thermal and hydraulic
ð62Þ performances of heat sinks; from a commercial product design
point of view, the most important performance metrics for the
ð63Þ thermal management systems are the device junction tempera-
tures and solder temperatures [49]. So as to ensure the commercial
success of a product, these two temperature limits must be safely
ð64Þ
and reliably satisfied, regardless of the coolant type selected and
the extent of the heat dissipation. Therefore, it is vital to know
the average junction temperature Tj improvement achievable by
the OF HS design with respect to the conventional SC HS. To make
a perfectly fair comparison of the junction temperatures of
ENu 30º OF HS (43)
ηth, derived 30º OF HS (61)
ENu 45º OF HS (43)

ηth, derived 45º OF HS (61)

ηth, validation (Eqn. 49)

ηth

ηth

ηth, derived (Eqn. 61)

ηth, conventional (Eqn. 47)

Ree
Ree
Fig. 27. Comparison of thermal-hydraulic performance factors, evaluated the using
conventional expression (47), validation expression (49), and derived expression Fig. 28. Comparison of Nusselt number enhancement ratios ENu (43) and thermal-
(61). hydraulic performance factors gth (61) of the 30° and 45° OF HS.
414 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416

enhanced and reference heat sink designs, the heat sink foot prints Table 4
and the heater powers should be identical; therefore, the results of Operational parameters of SC HS & 30° OF HS at identical fan powers.

the current study provides a fair comparison. SC HS 30° OF HS

Fig. 29 shows the junction temperatures obtained with the 30°
and 45° OF HS designs and the conventional SC HS at 20 W and
60 W heating powers, with respect to (a) Reynolds number and
(b) fan power. The error bars were not shown for clarity. Each junc-
tion temperature measurement has an uncertainty of ±0.34 °C.
Compared to the SC HS, at identical air flow rates, the 45° and
30° OF HS designs can improve the junction temperature by up
to 4.5 °C and 9 °C, respectively, at 20 W; and by up to 9 °C and
20 °C, respectively, at 60 W effective heating powers. The improve-
ment in junction temperature is more significant at moderate Rey-
nolds numbers since the benefits of the boundary layer disruption
and flow mixing phenomena are more pronounced at these air flow
rates. As the air flow rate is increased, the improvement in junction
temperature decreases; because at higher air flow rates, the SC HS
can already sustain thinner boundary layers and turbulent flow
regime improves the flow mixing and the advection properties.
In addition, as the air flow rate is increased, heat sink temperatures
inevitably approach to the air inlet temperature.
Fig. 29b shows the improvements in junction temperature
obtained with the OF HS designs relative to the SC HS at identical
fan powers. Compared to the SC HS, the 45° and 30° OF HS could
improve the junction temperature by up to 8 °C and 16 °C for
60 W effective heating power at identical fan powers.
Table 4 summarizes the operational parameters of the SC HS
and the 30° OF HS for 60 W effective heater powers and at equal
fan powers of 0.2 W. Due to the increase in the pressure drop
penalty of the 30° OF HS, there was a 25% drop in the air flow rate
compared to the SC HS. A reduction in the air flow rate caused an
increase in the air outlet temperature by approximately 2 °C; while
at the same time, lowering junction temperature by more than
10 °C.
The improved performance of the enhanced heat transfer sur-
faces can also be quantified from the improvement in the fan
power. A lower fan power to maintain the same junction temper-
ature can improve the battery life of mobile equipment at a single
charge due to reduced energy consumption, or allows the installa-
tion of smaller fans, which can help reducing the outer dimensions
of the devices, improving the material and manufacturing costs,
weight and mobility. For example, to maintain a junction temper-
ature of 52 °C, the approximate fan powers required by the SC HS
and the 30° OF HS for effective heating power of 60 W were
Fan power [W] 0.219 ± 0.0035 0.221 ± 0.0034
Qheater [W] 60 ± 0.48 60 ± 0.46
Tjunction avg [°C] 51.74 ± 0.34 41.01 ± 0.34
Tair out [°C] 32.32 ± 0.17 34.29 ± 0.17
m_ air [kg/s] 0.00554178 ± 0.000083 0.00411426 ± 0.000062
Re 2490 ± 38 1848.7 ± 28
0.219 W and 0.054 W, respectively. Therefore, the 30° OF HS pro-
vided a fan power improvement of 75% relative to the SC HS.
The detailed investigations of the thermal and hydraulic perfor-
mances of the OF HS designs showed that the use of the oblique
fins is an effective way of improving the air cooling performance.
The oblique fin design can effectively reduce the boundary layer
thicknesses over the walls of an oblique fin, while the vortex
induced within the secondary channels improves the advection
characteristics, yielding a heat transfer enhancement exceeding
the pressure drop penalty. This study showed that the effective-
ness of air cooling can still be maintained by a carefully tailored
air flow, and air cooling can be utilized for the thermal manage-
ment systems of the future.
6. Conclusions
The heat transfer and pressure drop performances of the 30°
and 45° OF HS designs were evaluated and compared with those
of the conventional SC HS of equivalent dimensions. The SC HS
and OF HS prototypes were tested on the compact wind tunnel
experimental setup for a wide range of Reynolds numbers. Upon
successful validation of the numerical results, detailed flow and
temperature field analysis were performed. The key findings are
listed as follows:
 The single channel, periodic computational model, comprising
the smallest periodically repeating portion of the OF HS, overes-
timated the experimental Nusselt numbers and friction factors
of the 30° and 45° OF HS designs due to the fully periodic flow
assumption throughout the heat sink in the spanwise direction.
 The 3D full domain numerical simulations captured the flow
migration predicting the experimental Nusselt numbers and
friction factors of the OF HS more accurately.

90 90
SC HS 60W SC HS 60W

80 (a) 45deg OF HS 60W

30deg OF HS 60W 80 (b)
45deg OF HS 60W
30deg OF HS 60W
SC HS 20W SC HS 20W
45deg OF HS 20W 45deg OF HS 20W
70 30deg OF HS 20W
70 30deg OF HS 20W

60 60
Tj [°C]
Tj [°C]

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
Re Fan power [W]

Fig. 29. Junction temperature improvements obtained with 30° and 45° OF HS at 20 W and 60 W heating powers as a function of (a) Reynolds number and (b) fan power.
 B. Kanargi et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 393–416
 The secondary flows, induced through the oblique channels of
the OF HS, effectively disturbed and reinitialized the boundary
layers on three walls of the oblique fins, reducing the thermal
convective resistance for the entire range of air flow rates.
 At very low Reynolds numbers, the heat transfer enhancement
ENu of the OF HS, was less than its pressure drop penalty Ef.
Upon exceeding the cross-over Reynolds number Rec-o, ENu
was observed to exceed Ef for both OF HS designs. The flow field
investigations showed that after exceeding Rec-o, secondary
flows entering the secondary channels separated and induced
vortices that contributed to advection heat transfer.
 The secondary flows enabled a proper mixing of air streams
flowing through the core of the main channels and in the vicin-
ity of the fin walls, enabling a more uniform increase in the air
temperature in the streamwise direction. A lower air tempera-
ture in the vicinity of the fin walls helped to maintain lower
wall temperatures.
 At very high Reynolds numbers, the cumulative secondary air
flow rates through the secondary channels in the vicinity of
the edges of the heat sink were diminished significantly due
to the draining and accumulation of flow through the main
channels. Therefore, the heat transfer enhancements of both
OF HS designs were compromised at high Reynolds numbers.
 The advection heat transfer was determined to be a combina-
tion of regular and chaotic regimes for the 30° OF HS by the
use of Poincaré maps, while the 45° OF HS showed rather regu-
lar advection characteristics.
 The thermal-hydraulic performance factor of the 30° OF HS
exceeded that of the 45° OF HS. The thermal-hydraulic perfor-
mance factors of both OF HS designs peaked at moderate Rey-
nolds numbers.
 Significant improvement in junction temperature was observed.
The 30° OF HS, which outperformed the 45° OF HS with stronger
secondary air flow rates, provided up to 16 °C reduction in the
junction temperature relative to the SC HS at identical fan pow-
ers for 60 W effective heating power. The OF HS also showed a
significant improvement of up to 75% in the fan power require-
ment to maintain a constant junction temperature.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support given
by the Mechanical Engineering Department of the National Univer-
sity of Singapore (WBS No: R265-000-800-733).
Conflicts of interest
The authors of this submission have no conflicts of interest to
declare.
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