International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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

Review

Optimization of thermal design of heat sinks: A review

Hamdi E. Ahmed a,⇑, B.H. Salman b,c, A.Sh. Kherbeet d, M.I. Ahmed e
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Anbar, Ramadi 31001, Iraq
b
DNV GL, Engineering Department, Las Vegas, NV 89146, USA
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
d
Department of Mechanical Engineering, KBU International College, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
e
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University in Medinah, Prince Naif Ibn Abdulaziz, Al Jamiah, Medinah 42351, Saudi Arabia

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

Article history: Heat sinks are a kind of heat exchangers used for cooling the electronic devices due to the simplicity of
Received 24 July 2017 fabrication, low cost, and reliability of heat dissipation. The extended surfaces from the heat sinks are
Received in revised form 20 October 2017 either flat-plate fins or pins fins shapes. In the last decades, intensive attentions were spent on miniatur-
Accepted 23 October 2017
izing the electronic devices because of the high sophisticated micro- and nano-technology development.
Available online 1 November 2017
But the heat dissipation is still the major problem of enhancing the thermal performance the heat sink. In
this article, a comprehensive review is carried out on the methods used for optimizing the hydrothermal
Keywords:
design of heat sinks. Therefore, available investigations regarding the passive and active techniques uti-
Optimization
Hydrothermal design
lized for enhancing the heat removal from heat sinks by modifying either the solid domain or fluid
Heat sink domain are covered. The purpose of this study is to summarize the investigational efforts spent for devel-
Active and passive technical enhancement oping the thermal performance of the heat sinks, limitations, and unsolved proposed solutions.
methods Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
2. Optimization of heat sinks in natural convection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
3. Optimization of heat sinks in unsteady flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
4. Optimization of heat sink shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5. Location of inlet and outlet arrangement of heat sink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6. Rotating heat sinks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7. Optimization of the substrate material. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
8. Optimization of heat sinks with boiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
9. Optimization of flat-plate fin heat sink (FPFHS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
10. Optimization of pin-fin heat sink (PFHS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
11. Optimization of heat sink by using porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
12. Optimization of heat sinks by using turbulators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
13. Optimization of the shape of single-channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
14. Optimization of heat sinks by working fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
15. Optimization of single- and double-layer heat sink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
16. Optimization of heat sinks by varying the size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
16.1. Mini-channel heat sink (MiCHS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
16.2. Micro channel heat sink (MCHS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
17. Temperature jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
18. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: hamdi.ahmed@uoanbar.edu.iq (H.E. Ahmed), eng.bassam2007@yahoo.com (B.H. Salman).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.10.099
0017-9310/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
130 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153

Abbreviations

AR aspect ratio Nu Nusselt number

DLMCHS double-layer microchannel heat sink PF pin-fin
FPF flat-plate fin Pr Prandtl number
HS heat sink Ra Rayleigh number
MC micro-channel Re Reynolds number
MiCHS mini-channel heat sink Rth thermal resistance
MT micro-tube SLMCHS single-layer microchannel heat sink
NF Nanofluid

19. Recommendations for future works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Conflict of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Appendix A. Supplementary material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

1. Introduction the demand of high heat generated by electronic components [4].

Due to the development of the micro-technology, highly integrated
With the continuous development of electronic devices towards electronic circuits led to increased heat generation rates in elec-
high performance and miniaturization size, heat dissipation prob- tronic chips. In other words, the speed of chips is increasing, the heat
lem has become a major obstacle to their development. Besides, generated by the chip is going up, and the temperature of the chip is
the traditional air cooling method has been unable to meet the rising while the volume of the chip is miniaturized. The average heat
high-density heat dissipation requirement. Computer users prefer flux of the chip was about 50 W/cm2 in 2010 and rose to be around
computers that having high-speed processors. The thermal design 250 W/cm2 in 2012. Porous metal has been demonstrated that it can
optimization of the heat sinks leads to minimize the size and enhance the forced convection heat transfer strongly [5,6]. Heat sink
weight of the heat sink, and then improve the heat removal in con- with a porous medium can increase both the surface contact area
sequently increasing the speed of electronic devices. Electronic between the fins and coolant and the local mixing velocity of the
devices are increasingly miniaturized and the operating power of coolant, which ensures better heat removal. The thermal perfor-
CPU increases. Besides, a larger amount of data processed by the mance of a porous heat sink can be enhanced if porosity conditions
CPU at a time causes greater heat generation. This development and the geometric parameters of the channel are properly designed.
in the computer manufacturing makes the transfer of generated High-pressure drop is carrying out between the inlet and outlet of a
heat to the ambient becomes more difficult [1]. Generally, the heat porous microchannel heat sink (MCHS) having low porosity and per-
generated by the processors is typically transferred to a heat sink meability which needs more pumping power. Therefore, the high-
(HS) by heat conduction, and then to the ambient by natural, pressure drop associated with using porous medium plays a vital
mixed or forced convection. Low efficiency of heat removal of the role in the design of a porous MCHS [7,8].
heat sink possibly causing damage to the electronic component The advantages of micro-channel compact heat exchangers have
as the temperature rises [2]. This problem has motivated the com- gotten plenty of attention of investigators since the last two decades.
puter manufacturers to employ sophisticated technology to The ratio between the contact surface area with the refrigerant and
improve the speed of electronic elements with increasing the heat the heat exchanger volume increases with decreasing the channel
removal. In contrary, the smallest size of the computers increases hydraulic diameter. This characteristic permits minimizing the heat
the overall flow resistance for the system and eventually sup- exchanger size, low amount of material used in the heat exchanger
presses the fluid flow between fins of the heat sink. This signifi- manufacture, and reducing the refrigerant amount. These aspects
cantly influences the fan performance and affects its heat not only impact the fabrication cost but also environmental aspects.
removal capability. Therefore, the heat sink must be designed Flow boiling in mini- and microchannels can be used for cooling
properly to promote heat transfer and to avoid overheating of many high power density devices such as Micro Electro Mechanical
the electronic element. The effective thermal management of heat Systems (MEMS), microprocessors, laser diode arrays and Light
sinks is of priority concern of researchers. It is necessary to be Emitting Diodes (LEDs) [9]. Flow boiling in microchannels is very
mentioned that the common popular coolant of electronic systems effective in the thermal management of high-flux modern electron-
is air due to the ease of obtaining the coolant and the simplicity, ics. To avoid electric hazards of electronic equipment or integrated
high reliability and low cost of the required equipment [3]. circuit component, the dielectric fluids such as fluorocarbon fluids
With rapid developments in microelectronic techniques, the featuring excellent electrical and chemical properties, are the lead-
electronic devices are going to be more miniaturized having high ing candidates for such applications [10].
power, high performance, and higher temperature. The traditional The past two decades have witnessed intense interest among
heat transfer method of forced air convection is reached to its ther- researchers in the use of MCHS, which has been spurred by such
mal limit. Therefore, the challenge is how to develop effective meth- unique attributes as compactness, high power dissipation to vol-
ods for cooling high flux devices. Generally, the working limit ume ratio, and small coolant inventory. Due to their high area-
temperature of electronic devices is ranged from 85 to 100 °C. The to-volume ratios, the use of MCHS has been introduced, first by
literature has shown that the reliability of chip reduces 5% and the Tuckerman and Pease in 1981, as an alternative solution for remov-
life span significantly reduces when the temperature raises every ing high heat fluxes from small areas. The mode of flow in
1 °C above the limit temperature. Therefore, a huge threatens to chip microchannels mostly remains under laminar flow regime due to
reliability and service lifetime if the high heat generated by the elec- the small hydraulic diameter of the microchannel and eventually
tronic element cannot be removed in time. Thus, it is necessary to the pumping power at the micro-scale is still a limiting factor.
investigate and develop an effective cooling technology to meet One of the most common means for cooling electronic modules
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153 131

is a finned heat sink. There are a variety of heat sink types, depend-
ing on the fin geometry, configuration and orientation (flat-plate
fin, pin fin, interrupting fin, slotted fins, inline or staggered, same
or different height and width, etc.).
The lower thermal resistance, uniform temperature distribu-
tion, and lower maximum temperature on the base surface, lower
pumping power, higher compactness and lower fabrication cost
are still the essential requirements in MCHS. In recent years, the
single-layered microchannel heat sink (SLMCHS) has been widely
used in various electronic devices as a cooling system. With minia-
turizing the electronic chips, the optimization of the geometric
parameters of SLMCHS is still a hot and attractive research topic
to improve the overall performance [11].
The SLMCHS, firstly introduced by Tuckerman and Pease [1] in
1981. The relatively high and non-uniform temperature distribu-
tion along the channel is still the disadvantage of SLMCHS. This dis-
advantage produces thermal stresses in the chips and then reduces
the electrical performance and eventually their lifetime. The high Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the orientation of the HS [18].
pressure drop between the inlet and outlet (due to the small
power inverters and electric vehicles reducing poluentes
hydraulic diameter of the channel), and the high temperature vari-
ation (due to the large amount of heat generated by chips cannot Jang et al. [19] investigated the effect of the orientation on the
be removed by the relatively small amount of coolant) restrict natural convection and radiation for a cylindrical HS used to cool
the SLMCHS to be applied in all engineering applications particu- an LED light bulb as shown in Fig. 2. As a result, the stagnation
larly with the development of microtechnology. However, increas- points and flow separation was appeared when the inclination
ing the coolant flow rate for enhancing the heat removal requires angle increased. Thus, the drag coefficient increased when the Nu
more pumping power which means higher noise associated number decreased. The drag coefficient increased steeply with
[12,13]. Therefore, in 1999, Vafai and Zhu [6] proposed a double- increasing the orientation angle by increasing either the number
layered microchannel heat sink (DLMCHS) design (top and bottom of fins or the fin length and eventually the orientation effect was
layers), as an alternative method for reducing the temperature intensified. Furthermore, there was no significant effect for the
variation along the heat sink. The proposed heat sink provides lar- fin height on the orientation effect. They derived a correlation to
ger hydraulic diameter can promise more uniform temperature predict the Nu number around an inclined cylindrical HS.
profile on the heated surface compared to the traditional one.
Therefore, further studies on the hydrothermal performance of
3. Optimization of heat sinks in unsteady flow
multi-layer MCHS design are necessary.
Xu et al. [20] carried out a CFD and experimental study on heat
2. Optimization of heat sinks in natural convection
transfer performance of a symmetrical fractal silicon microchannel
network under a pulsation flow. The results illustrated that the
Tari and Mehrtash [14,15] derived a set of correlations of Nu
heat transfer rate at pulsation frequency (2–10 and 30–40 Hz)
number (Nu) for both upward and downward natural convection
increased by 25–40% and it was higher than that for (10–20 Hz)
from PFHS by using large sets of experimental data from the liter-
when Re number was kept constant. By increasing Re number, a
ature. At small inclinations, it was noted that convection heat
decrease in the enhancement factors was recorded from 40% to
transfer rate remained almost the same. Their correlations covered
5% for the above frequency range, unlike the steady-state cases.
all possible inclination angles with accuracy less than 20%.
Increasing Re number caused a decrease in the wall temperature
Hassan [16] studied the natural convection heat transfer inside
and increase in the Nu number. There was no remarkable differ-
a horizontal and vertical enclosure HS having rectangular fins and
ence in the pressure drop between steady and pulsated flow cases.
filled with Cu–water nanofluid. He observed an increasing in the
Yu et al. [21] studied numerically the effect of agitator plates
Nu number with increasing Rayleigh number (Ra) and nanoparti-
inserted within the channels of a HS to enhance the heat transfer
cles concentration (maximum concentration was 10%) and with
by agitation. The periodic motion in a transverse direction gener-
decreasing diameter of nanoparticles (minimum nanoparticles
ated by the agitator plate enhanced the thermal performance.
diameter was 10 nm). At low Rayleigh number (Ra = 103), the Nu
Maximum heat transfer enhancement obtained was about 61%
number was increased with increasing number of fins and the
by agitation. They monitored a sharp increase in heat transfer on
length to the height ratio (L/H). At high Ra number (Ra = 106), there
the base surface as the tip gap size between the agitator plate
was no great effect for L/H on the Nu number, whereas the smallest
and the channel was decreased. In contrast, there was no effect
nanoparticle diameters and highest concentration covered showed
of tip gap size observed on heat transfer on the sidewalls. Higher
highest Nu number when the HS having one fin and L/H = 0.5 for
heat transfer rate from the channel wall was registered when the
both horizontal and vertical configuration.
amplitude or frequency of the agitator plate increased. It can be
Aminossadati and Ghasemi [17] recorded an increase in the
clearly seen that very limited investigations existed in this area
heat transfer rate of natural convection in a 2D square cavity filled
of research.
with water–CuO nanofluid by increasing Ra number and volume
fraction. Stronger circulating cells were associated with nanofluid
compared to pure water at high Ra numbers. Rectangular fin HS 4. Optimization of heat sink shape
is widely used in LED which encounters thermal challenges when
highly integrated into high power lighting system. Under natural Costa and Lopes [22] improved the thermal performance of the
convection mode, Shen et al. [18] found that intensive fin arrays HS for a light emitting diodes (LED) lamp operating under natural
were effectively affected by the orientation. Fig. 1 shows the convection conditions as shown in Fig. 3. The effect of the number,
degrees of orientation taken into the account of their study. thickness, length and height of fins was examined. Their results
132 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 2. (a) Diagram of cylindrical heat sink for a LED light bulb and (b) computational domain [19].
Fig. 3. The heat sink [22].
obtained by using the commercial code ANSYS-CFX illustrated the
remarkable importance of the geometric parameters on the heat
removal for keeping the heat source maximum temperature main-
tained below the critical temperature. They reported that the
objective core temperature of 65 °C was registered by increasing
the number of fins and their height and reducing the fin thickness.
These geometric parameters could cause an increase in the heat
sink mass about 24% of the initial mass, but to a considerable tem-
perature decrease. They recommended extending their proposed
methodology for exploring other types of heat sinks.
Kim [23] and Kim et al. [24] optimized the fin thickness of a ver-
tical FPFHS under natural convection when the varying was in the
direction normal to the fluid flow. The Rth was reduced by up to
10% and 15% when the fin thickness increased for the case of air
and water coolant, respectively. However, the difference between
the Rth of the HS with uniform thickness and the HS with variable
thickness decreased as the fin height and/or the heat flux
decreased. While he optimized in his research [25] the thermal
performance of a HS having fins branched in the direction normal
to water flow as shown in Fig. 4. It was illustrated, compared to a
standard HS, that the Rth of the optimized branched-fin HS
decreased by up to 30%. This reduction in the Rth was increased
with increasing the pumping power and decreasing the length of
the HS.
Türkakar and Özyurt [26] optimized the thermal design of sili-
con MCHS of Intel Core i7-900 Desktop Processor having a heat dis-
sipating of 130 W. They stated that when the hydraulic diameter
was reduced the pressure drop was increased across the channel
causing a decrease in the fluid velocity. They obtained as minimum
as of highest temperature 48.9 °C instead of 85 °C when the same
total heat dissipation equally distributed among four local heat
sources. They reported that the thermal performance of multi-
heat sources HS might be enhanced by intensification the channels
only around the hot spots while keeping coarser channels else-
where. They highlighted that their work could cover a wider range
of pumping powers and temperatures compared to original
designs of HS.
Hung and Yan [27] varied the channel height- or width-tapered
of MCHS numerically to improve the thermal performance. It was
found that the Rth decreased and then increased with the width-
tapered. A similar behavior was monitored with the height-
tapered. Briefly, the effect of height-tapered was negligible. A
lower and a relatively uniform temperature distribution were
screened for the width-tapered-channel design more than the par-
allel or height-tapered channel design. Maximum thermal perfor-
mance enhancement obtained from MCHS with width-tapered
channel was around 16.7% over that of the parallel-channel for P.
P > 0.4 W. While Hung et al. [28] examined the MCHS with
single-layered (SL), double-layered (DL) or tapered (T) channels
as shown in Fig. 5. They reported that the T-channel design has
the minimum temperature difference and the most uniform tem-
perature distribution (the best design compared to the others), fol-
lowed by the DL-, and SL-channel configuration. The optimal Rth
reduced with the pumping power for all cases, and the lowest Rth
was observed in the T-channel design.
Reyes et al. [29] optimized the hydrothermal performance of
MCHS using water by the implementation of tip clearance between
the tip of fins and the upper cover of HS including different heights.
The optimal tip clearance height showed a heat transfer enhance-
ment about 83% at Re = 416 associated with a pumping power ris-
ing of 18%. At Re = 1300, the heat transfer behaved similarly while
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153 133

Fig. 4. Scheme of FPFHS, (a) Y-shape and (b) inverted Y-shape [25].

and the feasibility of enhancing 3D convection in the tip clearance

flow region experimentally.
Ramos et al. [30] stated that their novel channels arrangement
of MCHS exhibited suitable benefits for application in HSs. Some of
the proposed MCHS achieved excellent flow uniformity and tem-
perature distribution contours in the FFHS at remarkably low fric-
tional losses compared to the others as well as the conventional
configuration of HS.
Wang et al. [31] proposed a novel fin structure applicable to
compact air-cooled HS including fin having oblique dimples,
straight grooves, full oblique grooves, half oblique grooves with
dimple/cavity, and full oblique groove with dimple/cavity as well
as flat plate fins. The results indicated that the proposed full
grooved fin along with the dimple/cavity structure showed an
increase in the thermal performance of 25% accomplished with a
friction reduction of about 20%. A significant thermal enhancement
was registered for the proposed fin structure in the fully developed
flow region.

5. Location of inlet and outlet arrangement of heat sink

Fig. 5. A single channel of MCHS [28].
the pumping power was 36% compared to the base case. They sug-
gested further works for future studies which the existence of an
optimum tip clearance height with stability issues within the fluid,
Hung et al. [8] examined numerically the effect of enlarging the
channel outlet (the channel outlet width and height) on the
hydrothermal performance of a porous MCHS. Their simulation
data indicated that the pressure drop across the MCHS was
reduced when the width or height enlargement ratio increased. It

Fig. 6. Temperature contour of the solid and liquid region of the MCHS, (a)–(d) new suggested design and (e) conventional design [32].
134 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of (A) inlet/outlet locations and (B) MCHS headers [35].

was observed that the thermal performance was enhanced and the
Rth was reduced with an enlarged channel outlet. Therefore, they
stated that the increase of the width or height enlargement ratio
of the channel outlet played an important rule for improving the
hydrothermal performance of porous MCHS.
Vinodhan and Rajan [32] investigated the effect of the location
of the inlet/outlet of the MCHS on the Rth and temperature distri-
bution of the substrate. They obtained better Rth for their new
designs compared to the conventional design. They motivated
the rest of researchers saying the design may be further optimized
by varying channel dimensions. The maximum temperature of the
substrate they obtained was 331, 325, 340, 333, and 392 K for the
configurations shown in Fig. 6, respectively.
Zhao et al. [33] explored the effect of inlet location, pin-fin
height, spacing distance and edge length on the thermal perfor-
mance of pin-fin microchannel heat sink (PFMCHS) with an inlet
near the midpoint of the diagonal and high AR micro pin-fin array
was designed. The maximum temperature of the chip was reduced
by up to 26.7% at a dissipation power of 72 W compared with other
reference inlet/outlet configurations. They concluded that the opti-
mum thermal performance of PFMCHS can be obtained by opti-
mization the inlet position and the geometrical parameters. Liu
et al. [34] showed that the inlet/outlet location played an impor-
tant role in reducing the maximum temperature and increasing
the heat transfer rate under uniform heat flux. They observed that
the heater position at the inlet of MCHS showed higher maximum
temperature than that being placed at the rear of the MCHS.
Xia et al. [35] analyzed the effect of different inlet/outlet loca-
tions, Fig. 7(A), and header shapes, Fig. 7(B) on the thermal resis-
tance of MCHS. They highlighted that I-type provided better flow
velocity uniformity and symmetrical flow distribution while Z-
type was the worst among them. It was screened that the rectan-
gular header shapes had better flow velocity uniformity than the
trapezoidal followed by triangular headers.
Lelea [36] optimized the geometric parameters of the micro-
tube heat sink (MTHS) on the thermal performance. The inlet

(a) (b)
Fig. 8. The single MT geometry, (a) side view and (b) front view [36].
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153 135

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of the inlet and outlet positions of the HS [38].

cross-section has a rectangular shape and positioned tangentially
to the tube axis as shown in Fig. 8. The axial velocity was higher
near the tube wall and decreased in the center line of the tube. This
velocity behavior caused higher absorption of heat transfer and
eventually thermal enhancement. In addition, the lowest tempera-
ture was observed with a diameter of 225 lm and length of 1 mm.
Also, Lelea [37] noted strong dependence of the position and num-
ber of the inlet jets on the hydrothermal performance of the MTHS.
For constant pumping power, the minimum temperature was
greater for multiple inlets compared with the single inlet jet mod-
ule. In addition, the multiple inlet jets designs had lower tempera-
ture differences on the bottom surface between the inlet and outlet
of the MTHS.
Naphon and Klangchart [38] tested the effects of outlet
location on the jet impingement of fluid in mini-rectangular
fin HS as shown in Fig. 9. The monitored a significant effect
for the outlet port location on the fluid flow and temperature
distribution.
Chein and Chen [39] examined the MCHS with various inlet/
outlet arrangements as illustrated in Fig. 10. It was monitored that
the highest temperature was taken place at the edge of the heat
sink due no heat dissipation by fluid convection. They observed
better uniformities for velocity and temperature in the HS when
the fluid enters and exits vertically via inlet/outlet ports. It was
also found that V-type heat sink had better hydrothermal perfor-
mance among these heat sinks types.

Fig. 10. Geometric configurations of MCHS [39].

136 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153

Fig. 11. Structure of MCHS; (a) PFHS, (b) Single-hole jet-cooling HS, and (c) DLMCHS [40].

Gong et al. [40] showed that the layout of MCHS was very
important to improve the thermal performance of HS by filling
metal foam in the inlet header to strengthen the flow distribu-
tion uniformity as illustrated in Fig. 11. The pin-fin array
arrangement enhanced the overall thermal performance of the
HS. They stated that although the jet-cooling HS possessed the
best cooling capacity, it was not proposed for the field of MCSH
cooling because of a huge flowing resistance. The double-layer
microchannel heat sink (DLMCHS) with the inlet at the bottom
layer was the second-best cooling capability with an acceptable
large pressure drop. Generally, there was substantial develop-
ment on the thermal performance of the traditional MCHS with
metal-foam inlet header and rectangle column fin MCHS under
the same pumping power.
Chen et al. [41] explored different inlet/outlet arrangement of a
HS in order to obtain the lowest Rth and temperature distribution.
Their proposed designs are illustrated in Fig. 12.
6. Rotating heat sinks
Yang et al. [42] examined an air jet impingement rotating and
stationary HS under turbulent flow regime as illustrated in
Fig. 13. They found that Nu number increased with Re number
for a stationary heat sink. The effect of Re number on the average
Nu number of a rotating HS with jet impingement was higher than
that for stationary HS for small Re, but it decreased with increasing
Re. They reported that by varying the fins geometry the hydrother-
mal performance of the HS can be optimized. From the open liter-
ature, there is only one paper examining the thermal performance
of rotating heat sink.
7. Optimization of the substrate material
Shkarah et al. [43] simulated a set of cases to show the superi-
ority of three types of the substrate; silicon, aluminum, and

Fig. 12. Proposed designs of HS with different inlet/outlet arrangement [41].

 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 13. Rotating heat sink [42].
graphene to provide the better thermal performance of MCHS.
They found that graphene effectively reduced the thermal resis-
tance. Mohammed et al. [44] investigated the laminar flow and
heat transfer characteristics of trapezoidal MCHS using various
types of substrate materials; copper, aluminum, steel, and tita-
nium. Their major findings confirmed that the substrate material
Fig. 14. Experimental setup of the three dissipation modes (a) metal foam–PCM composite; (b) pure PCM; (c) solid basement [45].
Fig. 15. (Left) inclined MCHS, and (right) symmetric/asymmetric elongated bubble and its size variation [47].
137
having high thermal diffusivity with base fluids having a low
Prandtl number (Pr) showed better heat transfer enhancement.
Qu et al. [45] explored a hybrid HS with parallel plate fins sin-
tered onto the substrate top using three different metal types sat-
urated in the hollow basement of the substrate as shown in Fig. 14.
These three types are copper metal foam–paraffin composite, pure
paraffin, and solid copper basement. Their experiments showed
that the copper metal foam HS reduced the surface temperature,
and the time required to reach the melting point of the paraffin
was shorter. The surface temperature was reduced by either reduc-
ing foam porosity or foam pore density. They reported that during
the melting process, the temperature increased linearly for the
foam–PCM composite than the pure paraffin HS since the augmen-
tation in thermal conduction caused by the metal foam exceeded
the level of its suppression to natural convection of melted
paraffin.
Akhilesh et al. [46] studied the thermal design for proper sizing
of a composite heat sink (CHS), for maximizing the energy storage
and the time of operation until all of the latent heat storage is
exhausted. When the dimensions of the CHS were less than this
critical dimension, all of the PCM completely melted when the
CHS reached the set point temperature. They proposed a correla-
tion for chosen material properties within 10% average deviation.
8. Optimization of heat sinks with boiling
Nascimento et al. [10] evaluated experimentally the flow boil-
ing of R134a inside a MCHS. It was noticed that by keeping the
average vapor quality over the HS constant, the average heat trans-
fer coefficient increased when the mass velocity increased. The HS
performance improved with decreasing the mass velocity and the
liquid sub-cooling at the microchannel inlet.
McNeil et al. [9] studied the boiling of deionized water
and R113 in a pin-fins HS (in-line arrangement) at atmospheric
138 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
pressure experimentally. The heat transfer coefficient of single-
phase flow was associated with flow pattern and restricted, as
the flow passage dimensions were much smaller than the capillary
length for water where the slugs were observed in subcooled liquid
flows. They stated that the criterion of the slug flow onset was not
compatible with that occurred in macro-scale flows. The R113 dis-
played a slug and annular flow pattern and were not confined, with
its capillary length similar to the channel flow dimensions. The
refrigerant flow pattern transition criteria were comparable to
macro-scale values.
Wang et al. [47] explored the effect of the inclination angle of
MCHS on the convective boiling heat transfer of the dielectric fluid
HFE-7100 experimentally as illustrated in Fig. 15. They observed a
similar heat transfer coefficient for the vertical upward and hori-
zontal, while for 45° upward, it considerably exceeded other con-
figurations. Besides, the enhancement of heat transfer coefficient
was reduced with increasing of the mass flux for inclined configu-
rations. The downward arrangements always deteriorated the
thermal performance, and more than 50% deterioration of heat
transfer coefficient was encountered. The flow visualization
emphasized that the thermal enhancement for upward inclination
arrangement was due to the increase of slug velocity.
Sung and Mudawar [48] tested a single- (1P) and two-phase
(2P) cooling performance of a microchannel having multi micro-
jet impingement cooling scheme using the dielectric fluid HFE
7100 as a coolant. As a result, the jet velocity has a significant effect
on the 1P cooling performance. Higher jet fluid penetration in the
axial microchannel flow was observed at high jet velocities, and a
strong impingement effect at the wall was recorded. At low jet
velocities, the effect of jets was highly compromised to the
microchannel flow. During nucleate boiling, vapor layer develop-
ment along the microchannel with multi micro-jets was essentially
different from that of the typical microchannels. Subcooled jet fluid
provided repeated regions of bubble growth followed by bubble
collapse unlike the continuous growth common in the typical ones.
Their proposed design showed better wall temperature uniformity.
9. Optimization of flat-plate fin heat sink (FPFHS)
Li et al. [2] tested experimentally the effects of the width, height
and number of fins on the thermal performance of vapor chamber
of FPFHS. The results displayed that the maximum temperature
was effectively reduced and heat transfer was more uniformly on
the base substrate by using the vapor chamber HS than that by alu-
minum HS. The overall Rth of their new proposed HS reduced with
Re number, but this reduction became small as Re increased. At low
Re number, the fin dimensions had a greater effect on the thermal
performance, while the thermal performance increased with
increasing fin number at high Re number.
Fig. 16. (a) Vertical planar fins HS and (b) oblique fins HS [1].
Continuously, the experiments of Li and Chao [3] indicated that
higher Re number showed lower Rth. While this reduction in the Rth
became smaller at the highest value of Re number. By keeping the
fin width constant, the HS having a highest height of fins outper-
formed the others in the thermal performance due to the largest
heat transfer area. In contrast, the optimal fin width (best thermal
performance) increased with Re number by keeping the fin height
unchanged. For wider fins, the flow passages between channels
became constricted. Conversely, for narrower fins, the heat transfer
area of the HS was reduced. Briefly, both conditions reduced the
thermal performance of the HS. In general, the fin width should
be optimized for every range of Re number.
The experiments of Li and Chen [49] showed that the Rth
decreased with increasing of Re number. The Rth was effectively
reduced by adjusting the distance between the fins, and the opti-
mal distance was increased with Re number. The influence of this
distance on the Rth at high Re numbers was small because the Rth
decreased with Re number. The Rth increased sharply when the
fin width ratio W/L  0.135. Increasing the fin height caused an
increase the heat transfer area which eventually reduced the Rth.
Generally, the influence of the fin height on the Rth was less obvi-
ous than that of the fin width.
Lin et al. [1] tested oblique array of FPFHS to avoid the improve-
ment of flow resistance caused by increasing the fin numbers in
order to increase the heat transfer surface area as shown in
Fig. 16. Their proposed design of HS showed better performance
than that with vertical plate-fins due to the larger surface area
and accelerating flow between the fins. For high flow rates, the
extra cooling effect could yield in a reduction of 6 °C on the CPU
case temperature by introducing oblique fins. At low flow rates,
their new design yielded a better heat-dissipation capability than
the typical one.
10. Optimization of pin-fin heat sink (PFHS)
Huang et al. [50] optimized the thermal design of the rectangu-
lar PFHS with non-uniform fin widths. They reduced numerically
the Rth up to 12.98% compared to the original HS. Besides, Nu num-
ber increased by 14.92% compared to the original one. Their exper-
imental results demonstrated that Rth decreased by 12.49% and Nu
increased by 14.21% compared to the original fin array. While
Huang and Chen [51,52] optimized the HS design by varying the
fin widths and heights. The observed numerically and experimen-
tally a reduction in the Rth by 3.10%. In addition, Nu increased by
3.20% compared to the original HS. Their designs of HS are shown
in Fig. 17.
Seyf and Feizbakhshi [53] examined the engineering application
of the using of nanofluids with different volume fractions,
nanoparticle diameters and nanofluid types on the thermal resis-
tance and temperature distribution of the substrate of pin-fin
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 17. HS with (a) fins with different widths, and (b) fins with different widths and heights [50–52].
microchannel heat sink. Hasan [54] examined the application of
nanofluids in PFMCHS having square, triangular or circular pin-
fin shape. A higher heat transfer enhancement was noticed by
using nanofluids instead of water particularly by increasing the
nanoparticles concentrations associated with an increase in the
pressure drop. For all values of Re numbers, the circular pin-fins
outperformed the others shape of fins by removing more heat
transfer, while a great pumping power was registered with the
square pin-fins shape.
Mohammadian and Zhang [55] tested numerically an alu-
minum PFHS in which the heights of pin fins increase linearly with
the axial direction of the air flow for thermal management of
Lithium-ion battery pack. The results showed that their proposed
design not only decreased the bulk temperature of the battery
but also reduced the standard deviation of the temperature field
inside the battery as well compare to the HS without pin fins.
Higher inlet air temperature caused a decrease in the standard
deviation of the temperature field while an increase in the maxi-
mum temperature of the battery was recorded. Besides, when
the inlet air velocity increased, the standard deviation of the tem-
perature field first increased and persisted to the maximum point,
and then decreased. Consequently, this increase in the velocity
caused a decrease in the maximum temperature of the battery.
Liu et al. [56] carried out experiments to investigate the effect of
an array of 625 staggered of square pin-fin on the performance of
PFMCHS considering deionized water as a coolant. It was also
shown that the pressure drop and the average Nu number
increased with the fin Re number. The heat resistance decreased
with the pressure drop for a fixed surface temperature. Huang
Fig. 18. Schematics of different PFMCHSs, (a) oblique finned PFMCHS, (b) oblique PFMCHS, and (c) staggered PFMCHS [59].
139
et al. [57] investigated the natural convection heat transfer of
square pins of PFHS. The results inferred that when the top of
the HS was downward facing orientation provided the lower heat
transfer rate. In addition, by increasing the fin number, the side-
ward arrangement had the same performance of downward
arrangement approximately. The optimal heat sink porosity was
around 83% and 91% for the upward and sideward arrangement,
respectively. A higher number of fins played an important role in
the downward arrangement, whereas a small effect was observed
in the case of sideward arrangement. Maximum heat transfer per-
formance obtained was 3.2, 2.5 and 1.8 times for the downward,
upward and sideward arrangement HS, respectively, compared to
the FPFHS.
Chen et al. [58] carried out a set of simulations to study the
reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) of inline and stag-
gered PFHS for operating in an uncertain environment. They found
that the increase of the target reliability led to more symmetric and
uniform temperature distribution around the core of the HS and
then a greater ability to resist the environmental variations was
observed. In addition, the RBDO of HS outperformed the conven-
tional HS in terms of more robust and reliable heat dissipation
when faced with environmental uncertainties.
Shafeie et al. [59] studied the laminar forced convection of
PFMCHS cooled by water as shown in Fig. 18. They optimized the
HS using entropy generation minimization. It was displayed that
for the given pumping power, the heat transfer of finned PFMCHS
was slightly higher than PFMCHS. Short pins with oblique orienta-
tion provided better heat removal under the corresponding pump-
ing power. The height of the fins and channel played significant
140 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 19. Perforated pin-fins heat sink (in-line configuration) [61].
Fig. 20. Slotted and notched perforation pin-fin heat sinks [62].
role compared to the orientation of the pin fins. They reported that
the heat removed by the finned PFMCHS was lesser than that for
the optimum simple MCHS at a corresponding pumping power.
Peles et al. [60] studied heat transfer and fluid flow over a bank
of PFMCHS. They observed very low Rth in a pin fin heat sink com-
pared to fin heat sink. A higher number of pin-fins was preferable
to reduce the Rth at high Re number. PFHS provided more design
flexibility in terms of pin shapes and their spacing.
Al-Sallami et al. [61] demonstrated that the perforated pin-fins
heat sink provided an effective heat transfer enhancement as
shown in Fig. 19. They displayed that the staggered arrangements
Fig. 21. Square pin-fin heat sink with (a) 0° rotated angle, and (b) 45° rotated angle [63].
of strip fins are outperformed the in-line ones. The benefit of using
perforated fins was potential in the enhancing in heat transfer with
significant reduction in the pressure loss and heat sink mass. Fig. il-
lustrate one line of perforated fins in in-line arrangement. Al-
Damook et al. [62] investigated the thermal performance of pin-
fin heat sinks with a rectangular slotted or notched perforation
pin-fin heat sinks computationally, as illustrated in Fig. 20. They
monitored an increase in the heat transfer rate and a decrease in
the pressure drop when the size of the rectangular perforation
increased. The optimal heat transfer augmentation obtained was
10%, while the maximum reduction in the fan power consumption
registered was 30%.
Zhao et al. [63] could enhance numerically the cooling perfor-
mance of the micro square pin-fin heat sink by changing the pin-
fin porosity and pin-fin located angle as shown in Fig. 21. They
obtained an optimal porosity and located angle for thermal
performance.
11. Optimization of heat sink by using porous media
Hung et al. [8] concluded that for a certain width or height of
channel outlet enlargement ratios, the Rth of a porous MCHS is
not necessarily to be less than that of plain MCHS if the pumping
power is not large enough to overcome the frictional loss.
Liu et al. [6] investigated a Lotus-type porous copper which is
used for cooling of high-power electronic devices numerically
and experimentally. Their experimental results illustrated that this
type of HS has an excellent heat transfer rate. The CFD data showed
that optimal porosity and pore diameter were existed for the HS to
conduct the maximal equivalent heat transfer coefficient. For the
same pressure drop conditions, the optimal pore diameter for the
water coolant was lesser than GaInSn coolant and the optimal
porosity for water and GaInSn coolant was the same. Zhang et al.
[64] carried out experiments on a MCHS by using lotus-type por-
ous (Gasar) metals with the long cylindrical pores formed during
unidirectional solidification of metal–gas eutectic system. The
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
results showed that the lotus-type porous copper HS using water
as a coolant has excellent heat transfer performance. They
obtained a larger heat transfer coefficient after simply cutting the
porous copper along the vertical direction of pore axis into 4 or 8
equal sections aligned in the pore axis direction. They attributed
that to the increase in the penetrative porosity due to the reduction
in the length of porous copper HS along the pore axis direction.
Consequently, this yields to increase the flow rate and then
enhance the heat transfer rate of the HS. They encouraged that
some methods must be taken into account to improve the pore
length and penetrative porosity during the fabricating of lotus-
type porous copper HS.
Jeng and Tzeng [5] tested sintered copper beads smoothly with
the radial plate fins of the copper HS by thin layers at high temper-
ature to form a LED cooling device. They examined perforated and
not perforated HS as shown in Fig. 22 (only the perforated types).
Two modules were investigated; the plate-shape sintered-metal-
bead (Model B) and strip-shape sintered-metal-HS (Model C) com-
pared with the standard case of the pure copper finned HS (Model
A). It was demonstrated that the thermal resistances of the Model
B and C were 29% and 16% higher than that of the Model A at cor-
responding conditions without fan (pure natural convection heat
transfer). It observed that the natural convection heat transfer
could not be strengthened by using the sintered-metal-bead layers.
The Rth was reduced by about 58%, 78% and 50% when a HS with
the fan was used for the above three models, respectively. Under
mixed convection heat transfer condition (HS with fan), the ther-
mal resistance of Model B was 31% lower than that of Model A.
Deng et al. [65] evaluate the two-phase boiling heat transfer
performance of a novel reentrant porous MCHS to show their fea-
sibility and applicability for cooling using deionized water as a
coolant as illustrated in Fig. 23. They displayed that the reentrant
Fig. 22. Plate shape heat sink (a) Model A; perforated HS without porous media, (b) Model B; perforated sintered-bronze-beads layers porous HS, and (c) Model C; perforated
sintered-bronze-beads layers porous HS [5].
Fig. 23. SEM photographs of reentrant porous MCHS, (a) cross section, and (b) top view of the microchannel [65].
141
porous MCHS reduced significantly the wall superheat for the boil-
ing incipience, two to five folds augmentation in two-phase heat
transfer coefficient, and delay and mitigation of two-phase flow
instabilities at low to moderate heat fluxes. In addition, during
the flow boiling of the reentrant porous MCHS and at low heat
fluxes and vapor quality, nucleation boiling ruled the heat transfer
mechanism. Besides and at moderate and high heat flux values,
forced convective boiling associated with thin film evaporation
was demonstrated. They concluded that the instabilities of the
two-phase flow were accessed for the reentrant porous MCHS.
Wan et al. [4] investigated experimentally the thermal perfor-
mance of a porous MCHS particularly used for cooling electronic
components having high heat fluxes. It was monitored that the
heat flux of up to 140 W/cm2 was dissipated by the HS with the
coolant pressure drop of about 34 kPa across the HS and the heater
junction temperature of 62.9 °C at the coolant flow rate of 6.2 cm3/
s. It was also observed that Nu number was increased with increas-
ing Re number. The increasing of coolant flow rate and heat fluxes
led to decrease the thermal resistance.
Feng et al. [66] studied the thermal performance of finned metal
foam heat sink (FMFHS) and metal foam heat sink (MFHS) under
impinging air jet cooling as shown in Fig. 24. Their experimental
results referred that the heat transfer of MFHS decreased monoto-
nously while that of FMFHS first increased and then slightly
decreased when the foam height increased at corresponding flow
rates. When the pumping power was kept constant, the heat trans-
fer of MFHS was disaffected to the foam height while it increased
as the foam height increased for FMFHS. The FMFHS removed a
heat about 1.5–2.8 times more than that for MFHS at the same
height, and same flow rate or pumping power.
Hashemi, et al. [7] examined numerically the effect of SiO2–wa-
ter nanofluid, channel AR and porosity of porous medium in a
142 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 24. Test samples, (a) FMFHS, and (b) MFHS, at height of 30 mm [66].
miniature FPFHS. They pointed out that the nanofluid-cooled HS
outperformed considerably the water-cooled one. It was demon-
strated that an increase in the AR or the porosity of the miniature
FPFHS enhanced the heat transfer coefficient.
12. Optimization of heat sinks by using turbulators
Ahmed et al. [67] optimized the thermal design of FPFHS by
inserting ribs in between channels in different sizes, locations,
numbers and orientations as shown in Fig. 25. They examined
the effect of inserting the ribs in the channels by keeping the num-
ber of fins constant and reducing them. They reduced the amount
of substrate material by reducing the number of fins and adding
tiny ribs simultaneously and reduced the pumping power by keep-
ing the number of fins and inserting ribs with reducing the flow
rate to get the same thermal performance of the original smooth
HS. Ribbed flat-plate fin heat sink (RFPFHS) provided the thermal
performance of 1.55 times greater than FPFHS under correspond-
ing conditions. While this enhancement reduced with increasing
the number of ribs. For the same thermal performance, the pump-
ing power of RFPFHS was reduced up to 69.65% compared to FPFHS
case. In addition, RFPFHS having five channels with 15 ribs showed
the hydrothermal performance of 1.37 times better than FPFHS
having nine channels, with a reduction in the substrate material
of 27.24%.
Tsai et al. [68] investigated the effect of an inclination angle of a
plate heat shield on the hydrothermal performance of a rectangu-
lar heat sink as shown in Fig. 26. The flow field was effectively
affected by the variation of the angle in both upstream and down-
stream of the HS because of the blockage effect causing an obvious
Fig. 25. Schematic diagram of (a) geometric parameters of FPFHS, and (b) computational domain [67].
increase in the pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the
HS. For the smallest fin height, the Rth increased with increasing
inclination angle. The best hydrothermal performance obtained
was at an inclination angle of 90° for small fin height, whereas lar-
ger height, the benefit of choosing of the inclined angle reduced.
They concluded that for getting lowest Rth and lower increase in
the pressure drop, the inclination angle must be chosen carefully.
As a continuation work, Li and Chiang [69] focused on vapor
chamber of FPFHS with shield experimentally. They pointed out
that the maximum surface temperature of the HS was effectively
reduced by adding the shield, which pushed more cold air into
the channels and thus reduce the thermal resistance. However,
using the shield caused a higher pressure drop across the HS. It
was also shown that the thermal enhancement increased with Re
number, but this improvement declined as Re increased. The pro-
posed ribbed heat sink with thinner, higher or more fins exhibited
better performance in terms of both heat transfer and pressure
drop compared to typical ones. Li et al. [70] experiments and sim-
ulations investigate a FPFHS with a pair of vortex generators (VG)
installed in a cross flow channel as shown in Fig. 27. It was
observed that when the distance between the trailing edges of
the VG was negligible, the thermal performance was worse due
to the difficulty of air flowing into the HS. The optimal thermal per-
formance was observed when the distance between the VG trailing
edges equals the length of the HS and the distance between the
trailing edge of each VG and the front end of the HS was zero. Fur-
thermore, the lowest Rth and low increase in the pressure drop was
registered at attack angle of 30°. Both the heat transfer and pres-
sure loss was observed increased with increasing the height of
the VG. A common-flow-up configuration of VG outperformed a
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153 143

Fig. 26. An inclined plate shield to a FPFHS [68].

Fig. 27. (a) Heat sink with VG, (b) VG in common-flow-up configuration, and (c) VG in common-flow-down configuration [70].

common- flow-down configuration in term of thermal perfor-

mance. A great heat transfer enhancement and low-pressure drop
increase by using VG at low values of Re number compared to that
without VG.
As a continuation work, they examined the performance of a
FPFHS with a shield in a cross flow [71]. An obvious thermal
enhancement was obtained by using the shield due to more cool-
ant enter the channels of the HS. Low Rth was recorded by increas-
ing the Re number. The highest height of the fins showed the best
thermal performance for a given width. The optimal fin width (best
thermal performance) increased with increasing Re number. The
wider fins constructed the entrance of coolant air whereas the nar-
rower fins reduced the heat transfer surface area of the HS and con-
sequently both of them increased the Rth of the HS.
In the same research area, Shaalan et al. [72] studied the ther-
mos fluid performance of a FPFHS with a shield. It was found that
the shield enhanced the thermal performance of the HS particu-
larly at low Re number. In addition, the inclination angle of the
shield played an important role in enhancing the thermal perfor-
mance. The best inclination angle that provided minimum Rth var-
ied with the HS height. They derived correlations to estimate the Fig. 28. Front view of single microchannel with Y-shaped bifurcation [73].
mean Nu number in non-dimensional form for both HS with and
without the shield.
Li et al. [73] proposed a new design for water-cooled MCHS
with vertical Y-shaped bifurcation plates (with angles ranged from
60° to 180°) in order to enlarge the area of heat removal surface as
illustrated in Fig. 28. The results showed better thermal perfor-
mance for MCHS with Y-shaped bifurcation compared to the corre-
sponding straight MCHS. The optimal thermal performance
equipped by the Y-shaped bifurcation at the angle between the Fig. 29. Top view of a single microchannel with multistage bifurcations plates
[74,75].
two arms of the Y-shaped plates was kept at 90°. The Rth decreased
with the increase of Re number and it was smaller compared to the Singh and Patil [76] modelled an embossed heat sink having
smooth MCHS. Besides, a great increase in the pressure drop was repeated impressions on the fin surface under natural convection
recorded with the increase of Re number. condition as shown in Fig. 30. A maximum enhancement in Nu
Xie et al. [74,75] modelled a MCHS having multistage bifurca- number obtained was 2.86 at the impression angle of 45° and
tions plates under laminar flow regimes as shown in Fig. 29. They the impression pitch of 12 mm compared to smooth ones. Finally,
monitored better thermal performance for the MCHS with multi- the embossed fin effectiveness declined with the increase in the
stage bifurcation, especially the heat sink with longer length bifur- heat input.
cation compared to the corresponding traditional ones. The
multistage bifurcated reduced the overall Rth and provided more
temperature uniformity of the heated surface. An obvious 13. Optimization of the shape of single-channel
enhancement of the thermal performance was observed when
the multistage bifurcations were used in the MCHS and the maxi- Wang et al. [77] studied an inverse geometric optimization for
mum number of stages of bifurcations was recommended to be 2. Al2O3-water nanofluid-cooled MCHS. They tested the parameters
144 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 30. Embossed fin geometry [76].
of the number, aspect ratio (AR), and the width ratio of the channel.
They concluded that the cooling performance was enhanced by
increasing the pumping power; however, this enhancement was
reduced when the pumping power increased highly.
Kim et al. [78] derived correlations for optimal fin thickness and
optimal channel width which reduce the Rth for given width,
height and length of vertical flat-plate fin heat sink (FPFHS) under
natural convection in a fully-developed-flow regime. From their
correlations, the optimal fin thickness depends on the height, the
solid and fluid conductivity only and is independent of Ra number,
fluid viscosity, and the length of the HS. Biswal et al. [79] optimized
analytically various design parameters such as eccentricity and
footprint of heat source, the thickness of the MCHS base, channel
aspect ratio, the number of fins, coolant flow rate, and thermal con-
ductivity of HS material on HS thermal resistances and pressure
drop. They have got good agreement with experimental data. Their
predicted analytical method was helpful for reducing the design
cycle time and time-to- market.
Before more than twenty yours, Knight et al. [80] determined
the HS dimensions that display the lowest thermal resistance.
Their parameters examined were; fin thickness/channel width
ratio, and the AR of the fluid channel for laminar and turbulent
flow regimes. Their results indicated that for the low pressure drop
across the inlet/outlet portion, laminar flow yielded lower Rth than
turbulent flow. Conversely, the optimal Rth was observed in the
turbulent region for high-pressure drop. Their configurations and
dimensions provided considerable improvement in the Rth from
(10–35%) over the previous studies. Before fifteen yours, Copeland
[81] estimated the optimum dimensions of fin thickness and pitch
of parallel plate heat sink. They stated that under specific operating
conditions (pressure drop or pumping power), the optimum outer
dimensions of the heat sink can be calculated, while not necessary
to estimate the fin thickness or pitch exactly to achieve high per-
formance. Khan et al. [82] carried out a study on parametric opti-
mization including geometric parameters, material properties
and flow conditions for determining optimum PFHS (both in-line
and staggered arrangement) conditions given the simultaneous
consideration of both heat transfer and viscous dissipation. The
effect of diameter, density, height and thermal conductivity of pins
and approach velocity of fluid were tested. It was demonstrated
that the optimum pin density was existed for each material. For
low thermal conductivity material, no optimum could be found
in the staggered arrangement for a given number of pins. The heat
sinks having high thermal conductivity and high pin density out-
performed other types.
Kuppusamy et al. [83] investigated the effect of the secondary
flows in MCHS by introducing slanted passage in rectangular chan-
nels walls in alternating orientation as shown in Fig. 31. These pas-
sages might cause disruption in the hydrodynamic boundary layer
and redevelopment at the leading edge of the following wall. Thus,
the thermal performance enhanced with minor pressure drop.
They recorded an increase in the overall performance of rectangu-
lar MCHS with alternating slanted passage by up to 146% and a
reduction in the Rth up to 76.8% compared to the simple MCHS.
The thermal enhancement was accomplished with a reduction in
the pressure drop up to 6% compared to the simple one.
Kim and Mudawar [84] developed an analytical methodology
for heat diffusion effects on rectangular, inverse trapezoidal, trian-
gular, trapezoidal, and diamond-shaped MCHS. The rectangular
microchannel with a high AR and small fin spacing outperformed
the others in the overall thermal performance under corresponding
conditions. They proved that the analytical methodology was very
effective tool for the design and Rth prediction of MCHS.
Mohammed et al. [85] found that the thermal performance of the
wavy rectangular MCHS was much better than the straight
microchannels under same cross-section condition and using
water as a coolant. The heat transfer enhancement obtained from
their new design of MCHS was higher than the increase in the pres-
sure drop penalty. A proportional increase in both friction factor
and wall shear stress was monitored with increasing the wavy
amplitude. Chen et al. [86] found that Nu number had much higher
values at the inlet region, and then quickly reduced and
approached the constant fully developed value. The temperature
in both substrate and fluid increased along the axial flow direction.
As a conclusion, the triangular microchannel showed the best ther-
mal efficiency. Kroeker et al. [87] concluded that the rectangular
MCHS outperformed the circular one in terms of Rth, while circular
sinks dissipated more heat per unit pumping power. Mohammed
et al. [88] carried out a numerical study to evaluate the effect of
channels shape on the performance of MCHS by keeping the
cross-sectional area constant. Channel shapes such as zigzag,
curvy, step, straight and wavy microchannels were covered. The
temperature and the heat transfer coefficient of the zigzag MCHS
Fig. 31. Schematic diagram of MCHS [83].
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 32. Geometrical parameters of MCHS varied in the study [89].
Fig. 33. (a) Structure of MCHS and (b) MCHS with offset fan-shaped reentrant cavities [90].
was the least and greatest, respectively, compared to the others
whereas the pressure drop penalty for all channel shapes was
higher than the conventional straight microchannel. Besides, the
zigzag shape showed the highest pressure losses and friction factor
followed by the curvy and step MCHS, respectively. Kuppusamy
et al. [89] optimized the thermal performance of trapezoidal
grooved MCHS using nanofluids. They claimed that maximum
value of (a) with a minimum value of (b), as shown in Fig. 32, of
the trapezoidal grooves showed the maximum thermal perfor-
mance. In contrast, they stated that the triangular groove would
be favorable compared to rectangular shape MCHS. From their
results and conclusion, it is obviously understood that the pre-
ferred triangular groove cannot be obtained unless (a) becomes
as small as possible and (b) as much as possible.
Chai et al. [90] explored experimentally and numerically the
effect of periodic expansion–constriction cross-sections on the
heat transfer of MCHS as shown in Fig. 33(a). They remarked an
increase in Nu number up to 1.8 for their proposed design of HS.
The Nu number was observed to decrease in the expansion region
and increase in the constriction region. While Chai et al. [91] ana-
lyzed the behavior of MCHS with offset fan-shaped reentrant cav-
ities hydrothermally as shown in Fig. 33(b). This configuration had
improved heat transfer performance with moderate pressure drop.
They attributed the enhancement in the heat transfer to the peri-
odic thermal developing flow and increase in the heat transfer sur-
face area. Whereas the throttling and jet enhanced the heat
transfer and increased the pressure drop simultaneously. Besides,
a pressure drop reduction and a dramatic decrease of heat transfer
attributed to the slipping over the reentrant cavities.
While Xia et al. [92] focused their investigation on the MCHS
configuration shown in Fig. 34. They obtained an enhancement in
Nu number by 1.3–3 times with 6.5 times increase in the friction
factor compared to rectangular channels. They stated that the
effect of rib height was stronger than the individual effect of the
size or arrangement of the reentrant cavity for Re > 300.
145
Fig. 34. Structure of single microchannel [92].
Alfaryjat et al. [93] found that the smallest hydraulic diameter
of the hexagonal microchannels showed the highest pressure
drop and heat transfer coefficient among circular and rhombus
MCHS. In contrast, the rhombus shape had the lowest friction fac-
tor and Rth followed by the hexagonal and circular cross-sections.
Generally, hexagonal microchannel was the best channel shape
for the heat transfer and pressure drop, while rhombus
microchannel was the best channel in terms of wall temperature,
friction factor, and Rth.
Chai et al. [94] examined numerically rectangular ribs inserted
in the transverse (interrupted) microchannels as shown in Fig. 35.
The variable parameters were the rib length and width with vary-
ing the arrangement the rib position. They concluded that the
interrupted microchannel with ribs was a good passive method
for heat transfer enhancement for Re < 600 only. They reported
that according to the International Technology Roadmap for Semi-
conductors (ITRS), the peak power consumption of high perfor-
mance desktops will rise by 96% (147–288 W) in 2016, and by
95% (91–158 W) in lower-end desktops in 2016. They motivated
the researchers to apply this technique in other engineering appli-
cations, such as pharmaceutical applications, refrigeration, and
chemical engineering industry.
146 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 35. The new interrupted microchannel with rectangular ribs [94].
Fig. 36. Offset strip-fin microchannels [95].
Hong and Cheng [95] optimized numerically the thermal per-
formance of offset strip-fin MCHS using water as a coolant as
shown in Fig. 36. They stated that the convection heat transfer
was enhanced by mixing the cold and hot fluid due to the period-
ical change of the flow direction. The periodical strip-fins was a
factor for breaking the thermal boundary layer. They observed a
reduction in the required mass flow rate to keep the maximum
wall temperature when the ratio of (K = fin interval/fin length)
was kept constant and the fin numbers (M) was increased. There
is an optimal K and M to minimize the pumping power, and this
optimal point depends on the input heat flux and maximum wall
temperature.
14. Optimization of heat sinks by working fluid
The experiments of Ho et al. [96] on using nanofluids in copper
MCHS proved the remarkable increase in the dynamic viscosity
due to dispersing the alumina nanoparticles in water base fluid
(0–2 vol%), while a slight increase in the friction factor was
recorded. Besides, a significant heat transfer enhancement was
registered and thereby lower Rth and wall temperature was
observed. Continuously, the experiments of Ho and Chen [97] were
focused on the effect of alumina oxide-water nanofluid (0–10 vol%,
and 85–100 nm particle diameter) on thermal performance of a
copper mini-channel heat sink (MiCHS). It was noticed that the
MiCHS had lower Rth with nanofluid compared to water. The
experimental study of Sohel et al. [98] on the thermal perfor-
mances of a copper MiCHS showed that the thermal performance
was highly improved when alumina oxide-water nanofluid (0.1–
0.25 vol%) used rather than pure distilled water. Greater enhance-
ment in heat transfer coefficient, lowest HS base temperature, and
smallest Rth were found about 18%, 2.7 °C, and 15.72%, respectively
at 0.25 vol%. Moraveji et al. [99] examined the effect of TiO2- and
SiC–water nanofluids (0.8–4 vol%) on the thermal performance of
MiCHS. They showed that the heat transfer rate was higher using
nanofluids particularly with increasing nanoparticle concentration
and Re number. They correlated two correlations; one for Nu num-
ber and another for friction factor with an error about 5% for both
equations. They included the nanoparticles concentrations into the
account in their correlations.
Moraveji and Ardehali [100] examined the precision of four CFD
modeling (single phase, VOF, mixture, Eulerian) of two-phase lam-
inar forced convection of Al2O3 nanofluid (0.5–6 vol%, and 32 nm
particle diameter) flows in MiCHS. They stated that the two-
phase models were more precise in both hydrodynamic and ther-
mal performance than single phase model compared to experi-
mental reference data. They reported that the mixture model
was most precise and requires less CPU usage and run time com-
pared to the others. Ho et al. [101] an experimental study is carried
out to examine the cooling performance of a copper MiCHS using
Al2O3–water nanofluid (0–10 vol%) and/or microencapsulated
phase change material (MEPCM) particles. They registered better
heat transfer enhancement when Al2O3–water nanofluid was used
rather than the hybrid water-based suspensions of Al2O3 nanopar-
ticles and MEPCM particles at higher flow rates.
Fani et al. [102] found, by using Eulerian–Eulerian two-phase
model, that copper oxide nanoparticles (1–4 vol%) caused a
decrease in the heat transfer and increase in the pressure drop
across a trapezoidal MCHS due to the large nanoparticle diameter
(i.e., higher than 150 nm). The heat transfer results obtained by
two-phase approach were higher than that of the single phase
(homogeneous) model. As a consequence, the base fluid has more
effect on thermal performance than nanoparticles.
The set of experiments carried out by Rimbault et al. [103]
showed that CuO–water (0.24–4.5 vol%, and 29 nm) nanofluid
flowing in a rectangular MCHS, under both laminar and turbulent
conditions, caused an increase in the friction factor as high as
70% for 4.5 vol% with respect to the base fluid. They claimed that
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
a slight heat transfer enhancement observed with nanofluids at
low concentrations, while a clear decrease of heat transfer was reg-
istered at above volume fraction. In terms of Performance Ener-
getic Coefficient (PEC: is a ratio of heat transferred/pumping
power) was lower than that of water for a given Re number. In
addition, it decreased with increasing the volume fraction and Re
number. Finally, they stated that best results were obtained by
water compared to all the nanofluids tested, and they encouraged
authors to focus of PEC of nanofluids flow inside a MCHS.
Hung et al. [104] reported that by using base fluids (having a
lower dynamic viscosity such as water) and substrate materials
(having high thermal conductivity) enhanced the thermal perfor-
mance of the MCHS. This performance was further enhanced and
then reduced when the volume fraction increased. Smallest parti-
cle diameter with adjusting their concentration and the pumping
power could provide lowest thermal resistance. Anyway, nanoflu-
ids (1–5 vol%, and 5–38 nm particle diameter) enhanced the heat
transfer of MCHS better than pure water. Mohammed et al. [105]
revealed that when the volume fraction increased, both the heat
transfer coefficient and wall shear stress were increased. However,
Al2O3–water nanofluid (0–5 vol%) could not enhance the heat
transfer, and the performing almost was the same of pure water.
They registered only a slight increase in the pressure drop across
the MCHS compared to the base fluid.
Yang et al. [106] studied the incompressible steady laminar and
turbulent nanofluid flow of a trapezoidal MCHS numerically. The
CuO/water nanofluid (0–0.4 vol%) was simulated considering
single-phase and two-phase (mixture) models. They monitored
that the two-phase model was more precise than the single-
phase model comparing to the experimental results. The Rth of
nanofluid was smaller than that of water, which decreased as the
particle concentration and Re number increased, while the pres-
sure drop was increased slightly with the concentration.
Halelfadl et al. [107] optimized a rectangular MCHS using
nanofluids (aqueous carbon nanotubes 1 vol%, and 9–10 nm in
diameter) as a coolant. They investigated the effects of the temper-
ature, the channel AR, the channel wall ratio and nanofluid on the
Rth and the pumping power of MCHS. They observed that nanoflu-
ids reduced the total Rth and enhanced significantly the thermal
performances of HS at high temperatures.
Peyghambarzadeh et al. [108] found experimentally that alu-
mina oxide (0.5–1 vol%) and copper oxide (0.1–0.2 vol%, and 20
nm in diameter) nanofluids showed greater thermal performance
and higher pressure drop compared to pure water applied in rect-
angular MCHS. They recorded a higher heat transfer enhancement
by using CuO-water nanofluid more than another one. The higher
enhancement was obtained with increasing the nanoparticle con-
centration but they claimed and stated that it cannot be said that
the enhancement increased with Re number. The lower Nu num-
bers and higher heat transfer coefficients would be obtained in
the MCHS in comparison with the conventional diameter heat
exchangers. It showed the greater importance of both conductive
and convective heat transfer mechanisms in HSs.
Chen and Ding [109] modelled the MCHS as a nanofluid (1–2 vol
%)-saturated porous medium. They found that the temperature dis-
tribution of the channel wall was practically not sensitive to the
inertial effect. In addition, the nanofluid temperature distribution
and the total Rth changed remarkably, attributed to the inertial
force effect. Moreover, the effect of fluid inertia caused a reduction
in the total Rth and the temperature difference between the chan-
nel wall and nanofluid phase.
Mohammed et al. [110] investigated the effect of Al2O3, Ag, CuO,
diamond, SiO2, and TiO2 nanoparticles (2 vol%) suspended in water
on the thermal performance of aluminum triangular MCHS. They
implied that lowest temperature and highest heat transfer
enhancement was obtained by diamond nanofluid, the opposite
147
was observed with Al2O3 nanofluid. Highest pressure drop and wall
shear stress was recorded with SiO2 nanofluid while the opposite
was monitored with Ag nanofluid. They concluded that diamond
and Ag nanofluids are recommended to get higher thermal
enhancement and low-pressure losses, respectively, compared
with pure water.
Lelea and Laza [111] analyzed the thermal behavior of MTHS
with five multiple tangential inlet jets using Al2O3–water nanofluid
(0–5 vol%, and 13–47 nm in diameter) as a working fluid. They sta-
ted that when Re is constant in the analysis, the maximum surface
temperature was better with nanofluid rather than water. For
higher viscosity, the fluid velocity was greater in order to keep
Re number fixed. Therefore, the velocity must be determined if
the improvement is based on higher thermal conductivity or
increasing fluid velocity. When the mass flow rate or pumping
power was fixed in the analysis, the maximum temperature of
the substrate was very close to each other. Nanofluids did not have
an effective effect on the maximum temperature difference when
the imposed constraint was the surface temperature difference.
They observed an effect for the nanofluid particle diameter which
minimized the maximum temperature at constant pumping power
for variable nanofluid viscosity with particle diameter and fixed
volume fraction.
Tokit et al. [112] examined the effect of nanofluids flow through
an interrupted rectangular MCHS. It was pointed out that Nu num-
ber was higher than the conventional MCHS with a slight increase
in the pressure drop. It was screened that highest thermal
enhancement was registered with Al2O3, followed by CuO, and
finally for SiO2. They emphasized that Nu number behaves propor-
tionally with nanoparticle concentration (1–4 vol%) and reversely
with the nanoparticle diameter (30–60 nm in diameter).
Seyf et al. [113] investigated the hydrothermal performance of a
MTHS with tangential impingement with nano-encapsulated
phase change materials (NEPCM) slurry as coolant with the base
fluid of Octadecane for NEPCM and polyalphaolefin (PAO). Their
results revealed that adding NEPCM to the base fluid provided
greater heat transfer rate. However, the pressure drop increased
with mass concentration and Re number when NEPCM was used
while better temperature uniformity and lower Rth was obtained.
A remarkable effect of different parameters on slurry entropy
was demonstrated. A decrease in generated total entropy was reg-
istered with increasing mass concentration and Re number. Seyf
and Feizbakhshi [53] obtained a significant enhancement of heat
transfer in the in PFMCHS due to replace water by a nanofluid. This
enhancement increased with increasing the nanoparticles concen-
tration and Re number. However, higher concentration caused a
higher pressure drop. The Nu number was increased with decreas-
ing the particle diameter of Al2O3 nano-powder while the trend
was opposite for CuO particles.
Naphon and Nakharintr [114] studied the turbulent heat trans-
fer and nanofluids (0.4 vol% and 21 nm in diameter) flow charac-
teristics in a copper MCHS considering single-phase, two-phase
(mixture and VOF) models in their set of simulations. They
obtained a reasonable agreement between their predicted data
and the measured results. Two-phase models were observed more
appropriate than the homogeneous (single phase) model. They
have found better heat transfer enhancement by using nanofluids
rather than base fluid.
15. Optimization of single- and double-layer heat sink
Hung et al. [13] explored numerically the heat transfer charac-
teristics of a DLMCHS as shown in Fig. 37. Their predictions dis-
played that the substrate materials having a higher thermal
conductivity ratio provided the higher thermal performance of
148 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
Fig. 37. Schematic of DLMCHS [13].
the HS. Better heat transfer was observed with a coolant having
high thermal conductivity and low dynamic viscosity. They
recorded a decrease in the pressure loss when the channel AR
and channel width ratio increased. They stated that the Rth of the
MCHS can be reduced by optimizing the geometrical parameters.
They proved that the thermal performance of the DLMCHS was
better than that of the single-layered one for the same geometric
dimensions, by about 6.3%.
Hung and his group [115] continued in their research to opti-
mize the geometric parameters of the DLMCHS involving the fol-
lowing geometric parameters. The minimum Rth of MCHS they
obtained was about 0.12 °C/Wm2 for a bottom area of 100 mm2
and heat flux of 100 W/cm2. By optimizing the geometric parame-
ters; the number of channels, channel width ratio, lower channel
aspect ratio, and upper channel aspect ratio, they recorded maxi-
mum reduction in the overall Rth by 52.8% compared to their orig-
inal case. The reduction in the Rth increased with the pumping
power until to reach to a constant value, which means there is
no power saving by increasing the pumping power.
Ahmed et al. [116] tested a new innovative design of aluminum
rectangular (RDLMCHS) and triangular (TDLMCHS) using different
types of nanofluids. They varied the parameters of channel dimen-
sions, nanoparticles concentrations, and types and pumping pow-
ers throughout the experiments. They firstly observed an
excellent hydrothermal performance for DLMCHS over traditional
SLMCHS. In addition, the sequential TDLMCHS provided a 27.4%
reduction in the wall temperature comparing to the RDLMCHS
and had better temperature uniformity across the HS length with
less than 2 °C. Sequential TDLMCHS provided 16.6% total Rth lesser
than the RDLMCHS at low pumping power. No significant differ-
ences monitored in the pressure drop between the two designs.
A larger number of channels and a smaller fin thickness inferred
less Rth rather than only increasing the pumping power. Higher
particle volume fraction provided better thermal stability for both
nanofluids than pure water with the best thermal performance of
Al2O3–H2O nanofluid (0.9 vol%) was registered with a temperature
difference of 1.6 °C.
Hung and Yan [12] investigated the effect of nanofluids and
geometric parameters on the thermal performance of a DLMCHS.
They pointed out that Al2O3–water nanofluid (1 vol%) showed the
better heat transfer enhancement about 26% compared to water.
They reported that the Rth behavior was decreased and then
increased with increasing the channel number, channel width
ratio, or channel aspect ratio. The thermal performance of the
channel was augmented by decreasing the channel number or
channel aspect ratio, or increasing the channel width ratio. They
highlighted that the overall Rth was reduced with increasing the
pumping power. The main statement in their research is that the
thermal resistance of MCHS with nanofluids was not necessarily
lower than that of water under all pumping power ranges, but it
can be reduced by adjusting the geometric parameters of the HS.
Wu et al. [11] investigated numerically the hydrothermal perfor-
mance of DLMCHS under different geometrical parameters and
flow conditions. They stated that the optimal width ratio of
DLMCHS should be increased when the microchannel AR was
increased. They also proved that the overall thermal performance
of MCHS depends on the pumping power. DLMCHS with higher
AR and smaller width ratio is suited to the situation when higher
pumping power is provided. They observed that when the inlet
velocity of upper channels was smaller than that of bottom chan-
nels enhanced the overall performance of DLMCHS for a given
velocities, particularly for low pumping power values.
Wong and Muezzin [117] conducted a numerical study to pre-
dict the thermal performance of a parallel flow DLMCHS compared
to the case of counter flow. Their concrete findings revealed that
the parallel flow configuration provided better heat transfer for
low Re numbers and low channel aspect ratios. The Rth can be
reduced when the smaller thickness of middle rib is used in a par-
allel flow DLMCHS. Shao et al. [118] optimized the size of DLMCHS
numerically. The optimal Rth they obtained was about 0.4025 °C/W
corresponding to their conditions. They have got a good agreement
between their numerical data and the analysis result, which
emphasized the reasonability of using the theory analysis of Rth
network model.
16. Optimization of heat sinks by varying the size
16.1. Mini-channel heat sink (MiCHS)
Fan et al. [119] examined a novel cylindrical oblique fin MiCHS
in order to optimize the thermal performance of the HS for laminar
flow regime as shown in Fig. 38. The oblique angle was varied from
20° to 45° with Re number range from 200 to 900. They found that
Nu number depended on the geometric parameters of the oblique
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153 149

Fig. 38. Full domain configuration for cylindrical oblique fin MiCHS [119].

fins, Re number and Pr number. The secondary flows were

strengthened when the length of the secondary channels
increased. They monitored a re-developing boundary layer at each
leading edge of the oblique fin and consequently enhanced the
heat transfer and intensified the recirculation zones, but suffered
a high-pressure drop penalty at higher Re numbers. The enhance-
ment of heat transfer reduced at higher values of Re numbers
and larger values of oblique angles due to the reduction in heat
transfer surface area causing additional pressure losses.
Ho et al. [120] explored the heat transfer characteristics of
water-based suspensions of phase-change nano-capsules in a nat-
ural circulation loop with a rectangular copper MiCHS and heat
source. The total HS length was 50 mm and a hydraulic diameter
was 0.96 mm. They revealed that water-based suspensions of
phase-change nano-capsules enhanced remarkably the heat trans-
fer rate of the natural circulation loop. Higher phase-change mate-
rial concentration was required to enhance heat transfer
Fig. 39. The microchannel with trapezoidal cavities [123].
adequately in increased wattages. Smaller Rth was observed when
modified Ra numbers increased led to improving Nu number at
both MiCHS and heat source. While they found that Al2O3–water
that the trapezoidal groove with groove tip length ratio of 0.5,
nanofluid enhanced the thermal performance of the natural circu-
groove depth ratio 0.4, groove pitch ratio of 3.334, grooves orienta-
lation loop at the heat source and heat sink about 3.5–22% and 9.5–
tion ratio of 0.00 and Re = 100 was the optimum thermal design for
62%, respectively [121].
GMCHS with Nu number augmentation of 51.59% and friction fac-
Jajja et al. [122] studied the effect of fin spacing on the thermal
tor increasing of 2.35%.
design of flat plate copper MiCHS for high heat generating micro-
Xie et al. [74,75] modelled a MCHS having multistage bifurca-
processors using water as a coolant. Five different fin spacing were
tions plates under laminar flow regimes. They monitored better
considered ranged from 0.2 mm to 1.5 mm. They obtained a lowest
thermal performance, lower overall Rth and more temperature uni-
heat sink base temperature when fin spacing of 0.2 mm was con-
formity of the MCHS with multistage bifurcation, especially the
sidered in the experiments. The thermal resistance and HS base
heat sink with longer length bifurcation compared to the conven-
temperature reduced by decreasing the fin space and increasing
tional ones. Li et al. [73] proposed a new design for water-cooled
Re number.
MCHS with vertical Y-shaped bifurcation plates (with angles ran-
ged from 60° to 180°) in order to enlarge the area of heat removal
16.2. Micro channel heat sink (MCHS) surface. They observed better thermal performance for MCHS with
the bifurcation compared to the corresponding straight ones. The
Ahmed and Ahmed [123] optimized the geometric parameters optimal thermal performance obtained when the angle between
of the depth, tip length, pitch and orientation of the cavities of the two arms of the Y-shaped plates was kept at 90°. Lower Rth
grooved microchannel heat sink (GMCHS) under laminar forced and higher pressure drop were monitored with increasing Re num-
convection heat transfer as shown in Fig. 39. The variation in the ber and they were smaller compared to the smooth MCHS.
tip length of the groove could change the cavity shape from trian- The experiments of Ho et al. [96] registered a significant
gular to trapezoidal and then to a rectangular shape. They revealed enhancement in heat transfer rate and on in copper MCHS by using
150 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
nanofluids thereby lower Rth and wall temperature was observed.
Fani et al. [102] examined the copper oxide nanoparticles in trape-
zoidal MCHS and they claimed that the heat transfer was decreased
with an increase in the pressure drop across the microchannel. The
same claim was pronounced by Rimbault et al. [103], when they
examined CuO–water nanofluid in a rectangular MCHS under lam-
inar and turbulent conditions in terms of Performance Energetic
Coefficient, it was lower than that of water for a given Re number.
Hung et al. [104] reported that the base fluid having a lower
dynamic viscosity such as water and substrate materials having
high thermal conductivity could enhance the thermal performance
of the MCHS. They stated that nanofluids enhanced the heat trans-
fer of MCHS better than pure water. Mohammed et al. [105] con-
firmed the increase in the thermal and hydraulic performance of
MCHS by using nanofluid while Al2O3–H2O nanofluid (5 vol%)
showed the same performance of pure water.
For laminar and turbulent flow regimes of nanofluids in trape-
zoidal MCHS, Yang et al. [106] observed lower Rth than using water,
which decreased as the particle concentration and Re number
increased. A slight increase in the pressure drop was monitored
with the concentration.
The optimization study of nanofluids in a rectangular MCHS
done by Halelfadl et al. [107] by examining the effects of the tem-
perature, the channel AR, the channel wall ratio and nanofluid on
the Rth and the pumping power of MCHS. They stated that the opti-
mized AR (i.e., narrower channel and higher exchange surface) was
lower for nanofluids compared to water. Peyghambarzadeh et al.
[108] found experimentally that alumina oxide and copper oxide
nanofluids showed greater thermal performance and higher pres-
sure drop compared to pure water applied in rectangular MCHS.
The higher enhancement was obtained with increasing the
nanoparticle concentration but they claimed and stated that it can-
not be said that the enhancement increased with Re number. They
claimed that lower Nu numbers and higher heat transfer coeffi-
cients would be obtained in the MCHS compared to the conven-
tional diameter heat exchangers.
Chen and Ding [109] modelled the MCHS as a nanofluid-
saturated porous medium. They found that the temperature distri-
bution of the channel wall was practically not sensitive to the iner-
tial effect. In addition, the nanofluid temperature distribution and
the total Rth changed remarkably, attributed to the inertial force
effect. Moreover, the effect of fluid inertia caused a reduction in
the total Rth and the temperature difference between the channel
wall and nanofluid phase. Mohammed et al. [110] investigated
the superiority of different types of nanofluids which provide
higher thermal performance of aluminum triangular MCHS. Dia-
mond nanofluid was the first while Al2O3 nanofluid was the worst.
Highest pressure drop was recorded with SiO2 nanofluid while the
opposite was monitored with Ag nanofluid. They concluded that
diamond and Ag nanofluids are recommended to get higher ther-
mal enhancement and low-pressure losses, respectively, compared
with pure water. Lelea and Laza [111] analyzed the thermal behav-
ior of MTHS with five multiple tangential inlet jets using Al2O3–
water nanofluid as a working fluid. They stated that when Re
was constant, the maximum surface temperature was better with
nanofluid rather than water. For higher viscosity, the fluid velocity
was greater in order to keep Re number fixed. The surface temper-
ature difference is not very much improved by using the nanofluid.
The smallest nanoparticle diameter reduced the maximum tem-
perature at constant pumping power and fixed volume fraction.
Tokit et al. [112] examined the effect of nanofluids flow through
an interrupted rectangular MCHS. They have found that the Nu
number for interrupted MCHS was higher than that of straight
MCHS with a slight increase in the frictional losses.
Seyf et al. [113] investigated the hydrothermal performance of a
MTHS with tangential impingement with nano-encapsulated
phase change materials (NEPCM) slurry as coolant with the base
fluid of Octadecane for NEPCM and polyalphaolefin (PAO). Their
results revealed that adding NEPCM to the base fluid provided
greater heat transfer rate. However, the pressure drop increased
with mass concentration and Re number when NEPCM was used
while better temperature uniformity and lower Rth was obtained.
Seyf and Feizbakhshi [53] obtained a significant enhancement of
heat transfer in the in PFMCHS due to replace water by a nanofluid.
This enhancement and the pressure drop increased with increasing
the nanoparticles concentration and Re number. Naphon and
Nakharintr [114] obtained a reasonable agreement between their
predicted data and the measured results of turbulent nanofluids
flow in a copper MCHS. They have found better heat transfer
enhancement by using nanofluids rather than base fluid.
It can be concluded in this section that most investigations
existed in the open literature examine the effect of nanofluid flow-
ing in microchannel heat sink. No paper has been published testing
the effect of the micro-size on the hydrothermal performance of
the heat sink.
In 2017, Sidik et al. [124] reviewed more than ninety papers
that investigate the passive cooling techniques only, such as chan-
nel types, surface roughness, fluid additives, and Reynolds number,
which were used for removing heat from heat sinks in micro-sizes
only (MCHS). They concluded that many challenges most be settled
for different applications. The stability and synthesis cost are the
main obstacle for using the nanofluids in MCHS.
17. Temperature jump
Bushehri et al. [125] explored the effect of temperature jump
boundary condition (TJBC) on heat transfer and temperature distri-
bution in FFHS. They proposed a new method for coupling equa-
tions between solid and fluid domains with TJBC in the open-
source CFD package, Open FOAM. They considered boundary con-
ditions, constant wall temperature and constant heat flux. They
observed a significant effect for the temperature jump on temper-
ature field and heat transfer in HS. For uniform heat flux boundary
condition, higher thermal conductivity ratios reduced the mean
temperature in the solid and fluid domain, while an adverse trend
was monitored in another boundary condition.
Pang et al. [126] evaluated the thermal behaviors of a hybrid
thermoelectric/photovoltaic (PV/TE) system. They noticed more
effective structure through combining a HS with a TE module prof-
its heat dissipation by cooling down the whole cell by 8 °C,
wherein the TE module itself demonstrated the cooling perfor-
mance by 27% enhancement in addition to its traditional one for
electricity generation. They stated that the PV/TE with a proper
design can be used as a passive method for improving the cell effi-
ciency and alleviating hot spot. They encouraged the researchers to
do further investigations to develop the stability of power genera-
tion of a hybrid PV/TE system and high-powered light emit diode.
It is worth to be mentioned that only two papers have been pub-
lished in this field of research.
18. Conclusion
In the present paper, the techniques which are used for improv-
ing the hydrothermal performance of heat sinks are reviewed. The
review includes the optimization of the thermal design of the heat
sinks by examining the pulsating flow and agitation, shapes and
orientations of fins, the inlet/outlet of the heat sinks, static and
rotating heat sinks, substrate material of the heat sinks, channel
configurations, adding of foams and porous media, using of turbu-
lators, additives to the conventional working fluids, single- and
double-layer heat sinks, and sizing of the heat sinks.
 H.E. Ahmed et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 129–153
It can be concluded that the inclination angle, orientation, and
Ra number play an important role in increasing the heat removal
from the heat sink. The natural heat transfer convection still
requires more attentions from the researchers to increase the heat
transfer rate of the heat sinks. Applying an external force such as
agitation or pulsation flow could increase the heat removed from
the heat sink. The varying of the fin number, fin geometry, channel
shape, channel aspect ratio, grooved channel, inlet/outlet location,
and ribs and turbulators in between channels have an attractive
effect for getting the optimal thermal design of the heat sinks. It
can be said that there is a very lack in the available data for
enhancing the thermal performance of rotating heat sinks. Filling
the base of the substrate of the heat sink modified the thermal
design of the heat sink. Heat sink with porous media and/or perfo-
rated fins showed better heat transfer but the increase in the pres-
sure drop must be taken into the account particularly with dense
fluids such as nanofluids having high concentrations. Baffles, vor-
tex generators, and ribs showed better hydrothermal performance
more than smooth heat sinks. Double-layer heat sink outper-
formed the typical ones (single-layer) but cannot be applied for
high-pressure drops. The miniaturization of the heat sinks showed
excellent results in both hydraulic and thermal performance. A
large numbers of papers published in mini- and micro-channel
considering traditional fluids and nanofluids.
19. Recommendations for future works
A few numbers of investigations published in using active
methods for thermal performance augmenting of the heat sinks.
Zhang et al. [64] suggested taking the pore length and penetrative
porosity into the account during fabricating the lotus-type porous
copper HS. Further investigations are needed for enhancing the
thermal design of MCHS by using more than two layers. Making
grooves in the flat-plate fins or using slotted fins in order to
improve the heat transfer, reducing the frictional losses and using
a smaller amount of substrate material lacks to extreme
researches. Different foams and fillets are proposed to be filled at
the base of the substrate of the heat sink for raising the heat
removal. The major problem in the using of nanofluids in such tiny
channels as microchannels is the sedimentation which causes an
agglomeration of the nanopowder and then clogging the passages
of the MCHS. This problem becomes more complex when the por-
ous media is used due to the porosity of the foam.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.
2017.10.099.
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