Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Thermal Science and Engineering Progress

journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/thermal-science-and-engineering-progress

Thermal enhancement of heat sinks with bio-inspired textured surfaces

Esteban Foronda a, b, Francisco J. Ramírez-Gil a, Álvaro Delgado-Mejía a, Luis M. Ballesteros a, b, c,
J.S. Rudas a, b, Luis C. Olmos-Villalba a, b, *
a
Institución Universitaria Pascual Bravo, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanics, Medellín, Colombia
b
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Faculty of Mines, Medellín, Colombia
c
Centro de Ingeniería y Desarrollo Industrial, Av. Playa Pie de la Cuesta No. 702, Desarrollo San Pablo, C.P. 76125 Querétaro, Mexico

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The current requirements of the electronics industry for heat sink design are to increase heat dissipation and to
Electronic cooling reduce the occupied space and weight. Research to improve the thermal efficiency and reduce the size of heat
Thermal numerical analysis sinks has mainly been conducted by modifying their geometry to increase the heat transfer area. In the field of
Finite element method (FEM)
tribology research, one way to modify a surface is to apply texture, which involves reducing the contact area but
Bio-inspired design
increasing the external area, which in turn could improve the performance of heat dissipation devices. In this
Flat fin heatsink
Surface texturing paper, bio-textured surfaces are fabricated on straight fin heat sinks and numerically evaluated by thermal finite
element analysis. The simulation results are validated by experimental measurements on a single-fin heat sink.
The potential of surface texturing in heat sinks is demonstrated here through a numerical parametric analysis of a
full-scale heat sink. The results show a reduction in operating temperatures of more than 26 %, reduction in
thermal resistance around 34 % and increase between 21 % and 40 % of heat sink effectiveness for textured
surface heat sinks compared to smooth fin heat sinks, depending on the convection coefficient. These results
suggest that the design methodology proposed here is more relevant for heat sinks used in high power dissipation
applications such as computer CPUs and GPUs.

sinks becomes the most important problem in this developing industry

1. Introduction
Due to the increasing demand for electronic devices in different
applications like gaming computers, smartphones, smart TVs, tablets,
video consoles, and others, microprocessor manufacturers have had to
focus on innovation and improve their performance, especially in terms
of cooling and temperature control. Modern electronic processors
generate substantial amounts of heat, usually over 100 W/cm2 [1]. This
excess heat can lead to overheating, significantly reduce their useful life,
or even cause permanent damage [2]. In this sense, the use of heat sinks
has been the widespread alternative to remedy this problem. Therefore,
heat sinks are widely used in electronic thermal management. Heat sinks
are heat exchangers characterized by ease of fabrication and adapt­
ability to any available space, which are two distinctive features
required for cooling systems in electronics [3–5]. The increasing
complexity of current electronic devices and their systems allows them
to achieve higher data processing capacity, which requires higher power
consumption and operating temperature, and can lead to overheating.
Hence, the need to improve the heat dissipation characteristics of heat
[6].
There is a wide variety of heat sinks on the market that can be
classified by characteristics such as application, manufacturing process,
and geometry [7]. Heat sinks are used to control the temperature rise in
electronic components for reliability and performance, as overheating
can reduce their lifetime. Many of current devices can control their
behavior to avoid reaching the point of irreversible damage, typically
between 75 ◦ C and 150 ◦ C [8]. This temperature control ensures that
critical electronic components operate within temperature limits by
transferring thermal energy (heat) from the component to a lower
temperature region. Heat transfer occurs primarily by convection and
radiation, with the most common heat sink design incorporating assisted
ventilation systems (forced convection). However, in recent years there
has been great interest in the use of natural convection heat sinks due to
their many advantages, such as the elimination of additional mechanical
devices (fans, blowers, compressors), which reduces noise, power con­
sumption, the probability of failure due to the absence of moving parts,
and consequently the overall cost [9–11].
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the case of heat sinks with

* Corresponding author at: Institución Universitaria Pascual Bravo, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanics, Medellín, Colombia.
E-mail address: luis.olmos@pascualbravo.edu.co (L.C. Olmos-Villalba).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsep.2023.102170
Received 30 May 2023; Received in revised form 23 September 2023; Accepted 1 October 2023
Available online 2 October 2023
2451-9049/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Nomenclature TavgE experimental average temperature (◦ C)

TpreS prescribed temperature in smooth surface configuration
Symbol (◦ C)
A surface area TpreT prescribed temperature in textured surface configuration
Dhe Hydraulic diameter (mm) (◦ C)
ξf fin effectiveness Tmin minimum operating temperature (◦ C)
∊ the emissivity Tpre prescribed temperature (◦ C)
σ Stefan-Boltzmann constant x position vector
H Fin height (mm)
Abbreviations
h convective coefficient (W/m2 K)
3D three-dimensional
hm average convective coefficient (W/m2 K)
AFW average fibril width (mm)
k thermal conductivity of air (W/m K)
AFL average fibril length (mm)
kij the conductivity tensor
ADR average distance between the rows of fibrils (mm)
L Fin length (mm)
BVP boundary value problem
Num Average Nusselt number (dimensionless)
CFD computational fluid dynamics
n normal vector to the surface
CPHS cold plate heat sinks
qb heat transfer rate without fins
CPU central processing unit
q″c convection heat flux
EDM electrical discharge machining
qf heat transfer rate with fins
FAR fibril aspect ratio (dimensionless)
q″r radiation heat flux FC forced convection
qs heat dissipation for smooth surface FEA finite element analysis
qT Heat dissipation for textured surface FEM finite element method
Re Reynolds number (dimensionless) FFHS flat fin heat sinks
Rth thermal resistance GPU graphics processing unit
Γq regions in which the Neumann boundary conditions are IC integrated circuit
applied MCHS microchannel heat sinks
ΓT regions in which the Dirichlet boundary conditions are NC natural convection
applied PFHS pin fin heat sinks
s fin spacing (mm) P. regius python regius snake
sk the location of a point on the surface of the domain SEM Scanning Electron Microscopy
t Fin thickness (mm) TIM thermal interface material
T temperature WHS wave heat sinks
Tc reference temperature for convection heat flux WMCHS wavy microchannel heat sinks
Tr reference temperature for radiation heat flux
TavgN numerical average temperature (◦ C)

textured surfaces has not received enough attention in the scientific
community, which motivated the present study. According to the sci­
entific literature review, geometry changes on heat sinks corresponding
to textured surfaces have a substantial impact on thermal efficiency and
represent a promising option to improve the relationship between heat
dissipation, size and weight of cooling systems for electronics. This work
aims to characterize bio-inspired textured surfaces applied to flat fin
heat sinks (FFHS), by numerical simulation with experimental valida­
tion. The thermal performance of the proposed heat sink is measured by
its temperature distribution, the thermal resistance, effectiveness and
compared to that of a reference smooth FFHS. The geometric features of
the bio-inspired deterministic textured lamellar surfaces are inspired by
the topographical features found in the skin of a Python Regius (P.
regius) snake. The numerical model is based on thermal finite element
analysis (FEA) and was conducted using commercial software. The FEA
model has been experimentally validated and used to explore a wider
range of operating conditions. This parametric study allows us to
conclude that textured heat sinks improve heat dissipation without
increasing geometric dimensions once the challenges of texture fabri­
cation are solved. Therefore, the novelty of this work lies in the vali­
dation of the main research hypothesis, which combines two different
conceptual frameworks: thermal analysis through mathematical
modelling solved computationally and texture design through
bioinspiration.
1.1. Literature review
Research on the thermal performance of heat sinks has been pre­
dominantly dedicated to determining the optimal geometry for several
decades. This has resulted in the development of various heat sink ge­
ometries such as flat fin heat sinks (FFHS), pin fin heat sinks (PFHS),
wave heat sinks (WHS), cold plate heat sinks (CPHS), microchannel and
cooled heat sinks, and their many variations [12,7]. Geometric optimi­
zation of a heat sink to efficiently dissipate heat from a device to its
surroundings typically focuses on maximizing the surface area exposed
to airflow. In particular, microchannel heat sinks (MCHS) have
demonstrated higher cooling capacity due to their higher surface-to-
volume ratio and the flow of air, water, ethylene glycol, and other
nanofluids through the microchannels [13–15]. MCHS can increase both
the contact area between the fins and the coolant as well as the local
mixing velocity of the coolant, resulting in better heat dissipation [16].
The concept of MCHS cooling was first introduced by Tuckerman and
Pease in 1981 [17,18]. The advantages of MCHS have motivated re­
searchers to investigate their thermal performance in various situations
by changing geometric parameters and introducing materials with a
more favorable weight-to-thermal properties ratio. This has led to
several experimental and numerical works [11,16,19–21]. A typical
MCHS comprises small and straight channels and fins arranged in par­
allel. The streamlines of the coolant are also straight. Several MCHS
variations have been proposed to enhance the effective convective heat
transfer area while limiting the pressure drop to a reasonable level. Peles

2
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

et al. [22] conducted a study on the heat transfer and pressure drop in 2. Materials and methods
tubular microfin heat sinks. The study found that this type of geometry
has a low thermal resistance, similar to that of microchannel heat sinks. Fig. 1 shows the methodology used in this study, which includes
Several researchers have demonstrated through numerical simulations texture design and manufacturing, and numerical simulation and vali­
that wavy microchannel heat sinks (WMCHS) have better heat transfer dation. We decided to identify objects in nature with specific geometric
performance than straight microchannels with a small pressure drop patterns using the conceptual framework of biomimetics, particularly
penalty [23–25]. In addition, Kadir et al. [26] evaluated smooth surfaces the bio-inspiration from nature [51]. In this work, topographical char­
against perforated fins and found that the latter resulted in a 40 % higher acterization of the Python Regius snake skin is performed to define the
net energy gain and an energy efficiency of approximately 77 %. The bio-inspired texture geometry to enhance the thermal response of heat
pressure drop was not significantly affected. The study of heat sinks with sinks by increasing the area of dissipation. This geometry is used as input
porous media and perforated fins has also shown excellent heat transfer to evaluate the thermal performance of textured heat sinks through both
results, but pressure drop must be considered, especially for dense fluids experimental and numerical approaches. The experimental setup is first
such as high concentration nanofluids [1]. presented to clarify the thermal phenomena involved in this application,
There are several passive and active techniques used to improve the the challenges associated with texture fabrication in straight fin heat
efficiency of thermal systems [11]. One of these techniques is the sinks, the assumptions adopted for the boundary conditions, and the
modification of heat sink surfaces to enhance convective heat transfer limitations of the experimental setups in terms of robustness and pre­
[27], which has been widely explored in the literature, for example, cision of results. Numerical simulations are subsequently conducted to
using dimpled surfaces [28], creating surfaces with protrusions [29], explore the response of the heat sinks under a wide range of operating
manufacturing artificial surface roughness [30], and texturing surfaces. scenarios, obtain the temperature distribution of the heat sink over the
In this work we focus on improving the performance of heat sinks with entire geometry, and demonstrate the potential of the proposed texture
textured surfaces, which basically consists of adding small grooves to the to enhance thermal performance. The experimental and numerical ap­
fin surfaces. Actually, a textured surface with a continuous trajectory proaches are linked through a simplified case study of a single fin heat
can be considered as a microchannel [31], but with an external air flow, sink, which allows to validate the numerical methodology and to
which is the main difference with traditional MCHSs, which usually use demonstrate the technical recommendations made by the authors for the
closed channels with liquids as the coolant. In this field, Refai-Ahmed texture fabrication. The parameters used in the simulations of the
and co-workers [32–34] improve existing air-cooled heat sinks by simplified single fin model (such as convection coefficient, nominal
incorporating a textured surface on the bottom of the heat sink to trap operating temperature of the bottom face of the heat sink and air tem­
and expel gas bubbles that remain in contact between the integrated perature) are determined based on the experimental measurements. In
circuit (IC), thermal interface material (TIM) and heat sink. This reduces order to design textures for the FFHS, the skin of a Python Regius snake
thermal resistance and increases thermal conductivity, which in turn was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).
increases heat transfer from the IC die to the heatsink. In addition,
Saravanakumar and Kumar [35] experimentally investigated several 2.1. Topographical characterization
types of threaded surface textures on PFHS and found that the heat
transfer was 18.13 % higher than that of the plain PFHS. This perfor­ With the purpose of having a geometrical inspiration for the
mance enhancement is due to increased surface area, flow turbidity and designed textures, a topographic microscale information of the ventral
delays flow separation of the threaded texture. Moreover, Dhadda et al.
[36] reported a 500 % increase in heat transfer coefficient for pool
boiling using textured surfaces fabricated with electrical discharge
machining (EDM) compared to a polished surface, mainly due to the
increased roughness. Similarly, Liang and Mudawar [37] reviewed the
passive enhancement of pool boiling using surface modification tech­
niques and Zhu et al. presented the boiling enhancement using bio-
inspired surfaces [38–40]. Finally, Chang et al. [41] proposed a scale-
roughened surface similar to the skin of a fish.
The surface control and surface texturing processes have been a
widely studied topic by materials and tribology science [42]. In the same
way, biological inspiration has influenced the design and implementa­
tion of several mechanisms as texturing processes, achieving better
performance than the traditional stochastic surface design [43]. Toro
et al. [44] studied the anisotropic friction of some reptiles and Borma­
shenko the superhydrophobic effect of rose petals [45]. Ballesteros et al
[46] studied the tribological response in dry conditions of some specific
texture patterns obtained by 3D printing polymer against metal, inspired
by the ventral scale of the Python Regius snake. Their results showed
that the coefficient of friction was consistently lower for the tests with
the textured samples compared to those with stochastic surfaces. In
terms of heat transfer, lower friction values can positively affect the
performance of heat-dissipating devices. Moreover, several researchers
have reported a direct relationship between surface texture and tem­
perature reduction [47–50]. In cutting tools, texture imposition has
shown a temperature reduction between 12 % and 65 % [49], in plain
bearing performance, thermal analysis has shown a temperature
reduction of 60 % [47,50]. Consequently, studies of textured surfaces for
heat dissipation applications are needed to explore their benefits, and
this is the aim of this article. Fig. 1. Methodology for design, texture manufacturing, numerical simulation
and validation.

3
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

scale of the Python Regius skin snake is characterized. The shed skin of Table 1
P. Regius is coated with gold using a sputtering system to obtain a good Description of the main components used in the experimental setup.
quality SEM image. The scanning electron microscope used is a JEOL Item number Element Specifications
5910LV.
1 Fan Generated pressure: 3.94 mm/H2O
Generated air flow: 121.80 CFM
Size: 92 × 25 mm
2.2. Experimental setup for the single straight fin heat sink
2 Thermal plate Temperature range: up to 100 ◦ C
3 Arduino module Microcontroller: Atmega 328
An experimental setup is constructed to determine the operating Supply voltage: 5 V
conditions of a single fin heat sink subjected to a heat source at the Digital signals: 8
Analog signals: 6
bottom face and heat transfer to the environment by convection (natural
4 Thermocouple Accuracy ± 1 ◦ C
and forced) and radiation. The experimental setup is also used to iden­
tify the challenges and limitations of discrete temperature measure­
ments and demonstrate a possible manufacturing technique for heat sink temperature field can be obtained for the entire heat sink, so no other
texturing. Fig. 2 presents the experimental setup used to evaluate the experimental temperature measurement methods (such as infrared im­
thermal response of the reference single-fin heat sink (with and without aging) were implemented. Measurements are made with thermocouples
texturing), which consists of a structural chassis, the thermal hotplate located in small perforations (see Fig. 2c) and using thermal paste
(item 2) used to apply prescribed temperatures, an adjustable computer (Halnziye HY610) to ensure reliable contact between each sample and
fan (item 1) to control the level of convection, and an Arduino module the thermocouple tips (yellow wires in Fig. 2b) to mitigate some factors
(item 3) that controls the fan speed and power supply to the hotplate. affecting thermocouple temperature measurement error [52,53]. The air
Table 1 provides relevant technical specifications of the main compo­ temperature was measured with a thermocouple placed between the fan
nents of the experimental setup. The heat sink is placed on the hotplate and the single fin heat sink.
using thermal paste (Halnziye HY610) as a TIM. Forced convection (FC)
is imposed as shown in Fig. 2b) by placing the fan at a predefined dis­
tance from the heat sink to obtain horizontal and vertical air flows. Four 2.3. Machining of textured surface
probe locations are defined for each sample, two near the top surface
and the other two near the bottom surface. In addition, the purpose of The surface quality of the textured surface is the main advantage of
the experimental setup is to define the temperature difference between using micromachining techniques [54]. In this work, microdrilling is
the base and the tip of the single fin heat sink. Since the boundary used to create the grooves for texturing, as this method is advantageous
conditions are uniform along the length of the heat sink, four probe in terms of material removal rate compared to electrical discharge
locations (two for the tip and two for the base of the fin) are considered machining (EDM) [36]. This technique, with appropriate cutting pa­
sufficient to compensate for a possible temperature gradient along the rameters, allows control of dimensional tolerance and top/bottom burr
length. After validating the results of the numerical model, the [55]. A Haas UMC 750 machining center at the Computer Numerical

Fig. 2. Experimental setup for evaluating the thermal response of heat sinks.

4
E. Foronda et al.
Control Laboratory of Pascual Bravo University is used to machine the
textured surfaces in conjunction with an end mill with a 3.175-20-0.2
reference drill. The cutting parameters successfully used to obtain the
textured surface are presented in Table 2.
2.4. Numerical simulation setup
In traditional numerical modeling of heat sinks, the focus is on
calculating the temperature field and measuring the heat dissipation
through radiation and convection under steady-state nominal operating
conditions. Since the main objective of this work is to assess the overall
performance of heat sinks and investigate the difficulties related to
texture fabrication and experimental measurements. Thus, the models
used in this work are limited to the structural field. This means that
although the heat dissipation effect of air is taken into account, air itself
is not modeled explicitly [6]. The decision to limit the models to the
structural field leads to the attribution of the performance difference
between smooth and textured heat sinks to the increase in area resulting
from the textured surface. While computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
analysis is an alternative method for evaluating the local phenomena of
interaction between the air surrounding the heat sinks [28], and the
grooves of the textured surfaces, this work is limited to solving the
conduction equation in a solid. This limitation is intentional because the
results under these assumptions are relevant for the purposes of a robust
design and the evaluation of multiple scenarios through numerical
design of experiments.
2.4.1. Governing equations and boundary conditions
The heat transfer equation in its strong (differential) form is pre­
sented in Cartesian coordinates in Equation (1), which represents
steady-state conduction in a solid with no internal energy generation
[56].
( )
∂
kij
∂T
=0 (1)
∂xi ∂xj
where T is the temperature, kij is the conductivity tensor, and the
terms i, j = 1, 2, 3 are subindices for a three-dimensional (3D) domain.
The position vector is x. Equation (1) is a second-order differential
equation that is part of a boundary value problem (BVP) with boundary
conditions: Dirichlet T = Tk in ΓT (the temperature is imposed according
to Eq. (2)) and Neumann, according to the type of heat flux specified in
Γq (see Eq. (3)).
T = f T (sk ) on ΓT
( )
∂T
− kij ni = q″c + q″r = f q (sk ) on Γq
∂xj
where sk is the location of a point on the surface of the domain, ΓT
and Γq are the boundaries in which the essential and natural boundary
conditions are applied, respectively. The normal vector to the surface is
n. q″c and q″r correspond to the heat flux by convection (see Eq. (4)) and
radiation (see Eq. (5)), respectively. In addition, the nonlinearities of the
material or of the boundary condition parameters are not included, i.e.
they do not depend on the temperature.
q″c = hc (T − Tc )
( ) ( )
q″r = ∊ σ T 4 − Tr 4
= ∊ σ (T − Tr ) (T + Tr ) T 2 + Tr2
Table 2
Cutting parameters for textured surface machining.
Parameter Value
Spindle speed 10,000 rpm
Forward speed 70 mm/min
Coolant Liquid synthetic coolant
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170
where hc is the convective coefficient, which is assumed to be con­
stant in this work. Tc and Tr are the reference temperatures for con­
vection and radiation heat flux, respectively. ∊ is the emissivity of the
surface and σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. Surface-to-surface ra­
diation that may occur between the heat sink surfaces is not included.
2.4.2. Fin performance
Fin performance can be quantified in terms of thermal resistance
(Rth ) and effectiveness (ξf ). The Rth and ξf of the surfaces were calculated
according to Eq. (6) and Eq. (7), respectively.
1
Rth = (6)
hc A
qf
ξf = (7)
qb
where A is the surface area for both smooth and textured surfaces, qf
is the heat transfer rate with smooth or textured surface fins, qb is the
heat transfer rate without fins.
2.4.3. Numerical implementation
The thermal performance of heat sinks with and without surface
texturing is evaluated by numerical simulation. A 3D steady-state ther­
mal FEA is performed using the commercial software Ansys™ v17.
Although radiation to the environment is a phenomenon present in the
physical model, radiation boundary conditions were not applied to
simplify the calculations. This decision was made because convection is
more relevant than radiation for the selected temperature range.
Furthermore, this decision does not affect the results due to the
parameterization of the convection coefficient, which can be interpreted
as an effective heat transfer coefficient combining both convection and
radiation. Two types of numerical heat sink models are proposed: a
simplified model to validate with experimental data and a full-size heat
sink to study the influence of textures on heat sink surfaces.
Fig. 3 shows the full-scale heat sink design used for the numerical
simulations and the respective boundary conditions. The bottom of the
heat sink has a uniform temperature which is the source of the power to
be dissipated. To save computational time, only a quarter of the geom­
etry (two planes of symmetry) was considered in these simulations. The
remaining surfaces of the heat sink are exposed to the environment
through convection. Convective heat transfer is imposed on the entire
geometry through a Neumann boundary condition with a constant heat
transfer coefficient and reference temperature (hc and Tc are constant in
(2) Eq. (4)) because the air is not explicitly modeled. This assumption is
deemed suitable as the focus of this work is on the overall performance
rather than on the local phenomena resulting from the interaction be­
(3)
tween the heat sink and the ambient air.
2.4.4. Simplified numerical model for simulation validation
A first thermal simulation using a simplified model of a heat sink is
used to validate the following numerical results. The overall setup of this
simplified model is equivalent to Fig. 3 for a single-fin heat sink. In this
case, the single-fin heat sink is subjected to a fixed temperature on the
bottom surface and convection on the other external surfaces. The
temperature field is obtained for comparison with the experimental re­
(4) sults. This analysis is performed for both the smooth and the textured
geometry. The material model for a steady-state thermal analysis,
assuming isotropy, is defined by the thermal conductivity with a con­
(5)
stant value of 160 W/m ◦ C, which corresponds to the 6061-aluminum
alloy, one of the most common materials for extruded heat sinks. The
meshes for both heat sinks (smooth and textured) are constructed with
second-order tetrahedral finite elements, where mesh convergence is
guaranteed.
2.4.5. Convective heat transfer coefficient for numerical models
The convective heat transfer coefficient (h) is calculated using the
5
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Fig. 3. Geometry of the heat sinks and boundary conditions for the numerical simulations.

correlations for finned heat sinks proposed by Sato et al [57]:
( s )0.47 ( t )0.36 ( L )0.13
Num = Re0.5 (8)
H L Dhe
hm =
Num k
(9)
Dhe
where Num is the average Nusselt number, Re is the Reynolds number
defined at the inlet of the heat sink flow, (s/H) is the fin aspect ratio, (t/
L) is the inlet width ratio, (L/Dhe) is the dimensionless channel length, hm
is the average convective coefficient, and k is the thermal conductivity of
air. The Re is calculated using the air flow (AF) shown in Table 1, which
was measured with a Model 9671 Anemometer Air Flow Datalogger. The
thermal properties of air are estimated at the air temperature measured
by the anemometer. Therefore, by applying Equations (1) and (2) and
substituting the values of the flow conditions and geometric character­
istics of the model considered here, h can be estimated and used as input
for the numerical simulations. The parameters for the calculations cor­
responding to the models for the experimental tests are given in Table 3.
2.4.6. Full-size numerical model for heat sinks
After validating the numerical model, the potential of the proposed
texture to improve heat sink performance is evaluated through numer­
ical simulations by exploring a wider range of scenarios in terms of
operating conditions (convection and power source) and geometry. A
65.8 × 52 × 86 mm heat sink with 17 fins (1.8 mm thick) is used. A
parametric analysis is performed by varying the values of the boundary
conditions to evaluate the effect of the textured surface under different
operating scenarios (see Fig. 3).
3. Results and discussion
The methodology explained in the previous section was used to
obtain the following results: topographical characterization, experi­
mental, and numerical evaluation of reference single-fin heat sink, and
thermal analysis of full-scale textured heat sinks using FEA. Further­
more, a parametric study was carried out to determine the impact of
distinct design parameters on the possible performance improvement
achievable with textured heat sink surfaces.
3.1. Bio-inspired texture design
Fig. 4 shows the morphology and some specific features of a ventral
scale of P. Regius skin snake. The repetitive and oriented arrangements
features are called fibrils and its control the locomotion of the snake. It
can be seen that the fibrils have a deterministic distribution and some
measurements can be obtained from the micrographs. The measured
topographical parameters of the fibrils are: average fibril width (AFW)
(see Fig. 4a), average fibril length (AFL) (see Fig. 4b), average distance
between fibril rows (ADR) (see Fig. 4c). A detailed description of these
parameters can be found elsewhere [43,44,58,59]. Table 4 shows the
fibril dimensions.
Using the reported fibril dimensions, it is possible to calculate some
geometric characteristics that can help in the design of fin heat sink
textures. The Fibril Aspect Ratio (FAR) is defined as the ratio of the
average fibril width (AFW) to the average fibril length (AFL):
AFL
FAR = (10)
AFW
The geometric surface design was chosen considering the FAR of the
P. Regius skin snake between 1.33 < FAR < 1.65. The trajectory
implemented in this work is taken from the work of Ballesteros et al.
[46] and is inspired by the topography of the fibril. Furthermore, Ma
et al. [60] have shown that the zigzag channel can improve the uni­
formity of the temperature distribution. The trajectory parameters of the
zigzag texture considered in this work are: AFW ≈ 1.77mm, AFL ≈
1.1mm and ADR ≈ 2mm and a result of FAR = 1.54. Fig. 5 shows the
single-fin heat sink texturing with the corresponding parameters.
3.2. Textured surface machining
Once the design parameters have been selected, the manufacturing
process is carried out. The following factors are considered: i) the ge­
ometry of the profile using a commercially available cutting tool of a
conventional milling process, ii) the equipment and assembly to perform
the machining of the textured surface, iii) the optimization of the area to
be subjected to the texturing process to obtain more patterns and thus
increase the heat transfer area, and iv) the patterns and the selected FAR.
The dimensions of the final R-profile for texturing are shown in Fig. 6, as
well as the manufactured geometry for experimental testing.

Table 3 3.3. Numerical model validation

Geometrical characteristics of the single-fin heat sink model.
Symbol Parameter Value Unit The experiments included three runs for each type of surface and
s Fin spacing 9.5 mm convection. Three types of surfaces are evaluated for the single-fin heat
L Fin length 41 mm sink reference geometry: smooth, vertically textured, and horizontally
t Fin thickness 1.8 mm textured. Two levels of convection are considered: natural convection
H Fin height 20.15 mm (without fan) and forced convection (with fan). The Nusselt number and
Dhe Hydraulic diameter 5.22 mm
convective heat transfer coefficient are calculated using Equation (8)

6
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Fig. 4. The topographical parameters of the fibrils.

Table 4
Topographical parameters of the skin snake.
Parameter Value (um) Average

AFW 0.69 0.59 0.51 0.60 0.60 0.54 0.65 0.71 0.81 0.61 0.82 0.73 0.66
AFL 1.33 1.35 1.10 0.85 0.95 0.81 1.11 0.98 1.06 0.98 0.89 1.06 1.04
ADR 5.10 4.65 4.15 4.65 3.96 3.96 4.78 4.12 4.17 4.89 5.16 4.14 4.48

and Equation (9) and the information given in Table 1 and Table 3. The
result of the average value of the convection coefficient is h = 12 W/
m2 ◦ C for natural convection (NC) and h = 50 W/m2 ◦ C for forced
convection (FC).
The thermal hotplates are expected to reach up to 100 ◦ C if the test
assembly is sufficiently insulated to prevent significant energy losses to
the environment by convection and radiation. However, the experi­
mental setup shown in Fig. 2 is open and the temperature of the hotplate
is affected by energy losses due to ambient conditions. Therefore, the
temperature of the plate was found to be between 84 ◦ C and 92 ◦ C for the
natural convection case and between 47 ◦ C and 50 ◦ C for the forced
convection case. The surface temperature at different locations of the
heat sink was measured every five minutes until a stable condition was
reached. The experiment included 4 runs for each level of surface texture
and type of convection, where the surface temperature on the heat sink
and air temperature was measured every 6 min, the average temperature
results are presented in the Table 5.
Since the complexity of the physical model of the full-size textured
heat sink is similar for all cases, only the horizontal pattern texture is
implemented for the numerical simulations, which is considered suffi­
cient to validate the proposed methodology. The first set of numerical
results is the temperature field for the single-fin models shown in Fig. 7
for NC and FC. The temperature corresponding to the measured value
during the experiments on the bottom surface is imposed in the FEA
model. The average temperature is calculated at the four probe loca­
tions. The temperature patterns are consistent with the experimental
results, and it is observed that the textured surface produces a more
uniform temperature distribution. Due to the convection boundary
condition, a lower temperature is obtained at the top face of the heat
sink. For the sake of brevity, and because the overall phenomena
modeled in the case studies of this work do not depend on local thermal
gradients, a detailed analysis of mesh convergence is not included here.
The numerical models for the single-fin heat sink with 184,000 s-order
tetrahedral finite elements guaranteed mesh independence of the
results.
Table 6 presents the raw data for the comparison between numerical
and experimental results for the simplified models, while Table 7 shows
the processed percentages for the comparison. First, the difference in the
average temperature of the probe locations is at most 1.1 % between the
numerical models (Tavg N ) and the experimental results (Tavg E ), which
validates the FEA model. This supports the decision to build another
more complex numerical model to compare full-scale smooth and
textured heat sinks without the need for additional experimental vali­
dation and/or manufacturing. On the other hand, although the smooth

7
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Fig. 5. Horizontal and vertical zigzag trajectories of the textured surface on the flat fin.

Fig. 6. Manufactured single-fin heat sink with textured surfaces and R-profile groove dimensions (units: mm).

more heat to be dissipated at lower operating temperatures.

Table 5
Average hotplate temperature and air temperature of the experimental tests for
the single-fin heat sink.
3.4. Performance evaluation of textured heat sinks

Texture type Hotplate temperature Air temperature

NC FC NC
Smooth 90.8 ◦ C 49.5 ◦ C 35.6
Vertical pattern 83.8 ◦ C 47.3 ◦ C 31.7
Horizontal pattern 88.4 ◦ C 48.0 ◦ C 27.74
(Tpre S ) and textured (Tpre T ) heat sinks are not prescribed with the same
temperature (Tpre ) due to the experimental results, it can be observed
that the use of textured surface enhances thermal performance as a
higher power dissipation is achieved, 28.9 % in natural convection and
25.9 % in forced convection more than the smoothed surfaces.
Furthermore, it is also observed that even the textured heat sink is
imposed with lower temperature compared to the smoothed surfaces
(Tpre /Tpre S , − 2.5 % and − 1.4 % for natural and forced convection,
respectively), a minimum operating temperature is obtained using
textured heat sinks. In fact, in natural convection, textured surfaces
reduce the temperature by up to 3 % (Tmin /Tpre ), while smoothed sur­
faces reduce the temperature by only 2.1 %. In forced convection, the
percentages are higher, with textured surfaces reducing the heat sink
temperature by up to 8.5 %, while smooth surfaces reduce the temper­
ature by only up to 4.4 %. This is an important result because it shows
that the improvement in thermal performance of textured heat sinks is
more significant at higher values of the convection coefficient, allowing
The validation of the numerical approach by the experimental results
FC of the single-fin geometry allows the focus of the analysis to be shifted to
27.1 the full-scale heat sink. The thermal conductivity of the heat sink ma­
24.6 terial for the parametric analysis is changed to 229 W/m ◦ C, assuming
24.4 mass production of this component with a controlled extrusion
manufacturing process that guarantees a higher conductivity than the
material used for the single-fin heat sink of the experimental tests. Mesh
independence is verified by running simulations with up to 2.5 million
finite elements (see Fig. 8). Since the implemented structural approach
does not generate significant local gradients on the geometry (no explicit
modeling of the air surrounding the heatsink), no local mesh refinement
was required to achieve mesh convergence.
Fig. 9 shows the temperature field for a quarter of the geometry of
the two heat sinks shown in Fig. 3, where a temperature of 90 ◦ C is
imposed on the bottom surface and a convection coefficient of 50 W/
m2 ◦ C is used on the other surfaces (the assumed ambient temperature is
22 ◦ C). As expected, when the geometry of the heat sink allows a sig­
nificant increase in surface area through the use of textured surfaces, the
temperature of the heat sink is reduced. In particular, the numerical
model shows that the minimum temperature obtained for the heat sink
can be reduced to more than 12 ◦ C (17 %) by including the texture on
both surfaces of the fins. In this case, the total surface area is increased
from 0.145 m2 for the plain heat sink to 0.218 m2 for the textured heat
sink, which is a net surface area gain of 50 %. Moreover, the weight of

8
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Fig. 7. Temperature field in the smooth and textured single-fin heat sinks for the natural convection (NC) and forced convection (FC) simulations.

Table 6
Raw thermal results for the single-fin heat sink.
Convection type Surface type Tpre [◦ C] Tmin [◦ C] Tavg [◦ C] (Numerical) Tavg [◦ C] (Experimental) Heat dissipation [W]

Natural Smooth 91.9 90.5 91.13 90.75 2.04

Textured 89.6 86.9 88.14 88.35 2.63
Forced Smooth 50.4 48.2 49.16 49.48 3.36
Textured 49.7 45.5 47.44 47.97 4.23

Table 7
Percentage results comparing smoothed and textured heat sink surfaces.
Convection Surface Tpre Tmin Tavg N − Tavg E qT − qS
[ [ [ [
type type Tpre S Tpre TavgE qS
%] %] %] %]

Natural Smooth – 97.9 0.42 –

Textured 97.5 97.0 − 0.24 28.9
Forced Smooth – 95.6 − 0.65 –
Textured 98.6 91.5 − 1.10 25.9

the textured heat sink is reduced by ~12 % (384.57 g versus 436.86 g,

for the full size textured and smoothed heat sinks, respectively), which is
a significant gain especially for mobile application. The power dissi­
pated is 98.9 W for the smooth heat sink and 127.2 W for the textured
heat sink (only a quarter of the model), representing a 28.6 % increase in
power dissipation.
Fig. 8. Finite element mesh for the full-size textured heat sink – 2.5 million
As mentioned above, the results obtained suggest that the textured
finite elements.
heat sink can dissipate more thermal energy at a lower operating tem­
perature. These results are consistent with the increase in thermal

9
E. Foronda et al.
Fig. 9. Temperature field and power dissipation for a quarter of the full-size heat sink.
performance found by other authors who have used surface modification
in heat sinks [28–30]. However, a direct quantitative comparison with
the literature on the thermal effectiveness of texturing is not possible
because it is a factor that is highly dependent on the operating condi­
tions of the heat sink of each case study, and improvements can be found
from 18 % [35] to 500 % [36].
3.4.1. Parametric study of the textured heat sink performance
The effect of the textured surface on the performance of the heat sink
depends on the operating conditions. Therefore, a parametric study is
performed numerically for different values of the temperature imposed
on the bottom surface (50 ◦ C–150 ◦ C) and the convection coefficient
(20–80 W/m2 ◦ C), using the same heat sinks presented in Fig. 9. Here, 30
configurations were evaluated for each heat sink (smooth and textured).
The results are analyzed in terms of the average temperature of the top
faces, which is the coldest region of the heat sink as shown in Fig. 9.
Fig. 10 shows the average temperature obtained from the simula­
tions for the top faces as a function of the convection coefficient and for
three values of the imposed temperature in the bottom face. Although
the curves are not perfectly lineal, their curvature is small, which sup­
ports the selection of the number of samples. The higher surface area of
the textured heat sink with respect to the smooth heat sink allows an
increase in heat dissipation capabilities and a lower overall operating
temperature, which is evidenced by the position of the curves for the
textured heat sink (always below the curves for the smooth heat sink)
Fig. 10. Average temperature of the top faces of the heat sinks as a function of the convection coefficient and different temperatures of the heat source – Numerical
simulations.
10
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170
and is consistent with the results described for the previous simulation.
The main conclusion to be drawn from Fig. 10 is that the distance
between the curves is not constant, which means that for a given ge­
ometry, the performance enhancement of the textured surface heat sink
is greater for thermal scenarios consisting of high convection and
elevated power source temperature. For example, at a convection co­
efficient of 80 W/m2 ◦ C, the average temperature of the top faces can be
reduced by 26 % (from 106.8 ◦ C to 79.1 ◦ C) by using the textured surface
for a 150 ◦ C heat source, compared to a 15 % reduction (from 40.5 ◦ C to
34.5 ◦ C) for a 50 ◦ C heat source. This result suggests that textured sur­
faces on heat sinks have greater potential in the most demanding ap­
plications such as CPUs and GPUs in the computer industry. This
behavior is also demonstrated in Fig. 11 for total power dissipated as a
function of convection coefficient and operating temperature. Textured
heat sinks outperform smoothed heat sinks in all cases. The difference
between the dissipated power of textured and non-textured heat sinks is
nearly constant for the same imposed temperatures, regardless of the
convection coefficient, suggesting that the dissipated power of textured
heat sinks will outperform traditional heat sink designs in all convection
conditions (natural or forced).
The metrics thermal resistance and effectiveness have been used in
this work to quantify the thermal performance of elements with
extended surfaces. Fig. 12 illustrates the convective thermal resistance
for both the smooth and textured types of surfaces as a function of the
convection coefficient. Based on the observed trend, the textured surface
E. Foronda et al. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170

Fig. 11. Heat sink power dissipation as a function of convection coefficient and different heat source temperatures – Numerical simulations on a quarter model.

Fig. 12. Heat sink thermal resistance as a function of convection coefficient– Numerical simulations on a quarter model.

demonstrates a reduction of 34.4 % in thermal resistance compared to
the smooth surface, giving it an advantage throughout the simulated
convective coefficient range. This trend, which is supported by existing
literature [32–34], further reinforces the convenience of this method.
Similarly, the effect is determined by the higher surface area of the
textured surface under the same convective coefficient.
Similarly, Fig. 13 shows the effect of texture of the heat sink effec­
tiveness, in this case it was possible to obtain between 21 % and 40 % in
the performance of the fin when evaluated with this term. It can be seen
that the effect of the heat sink effectiveness is more representative when
working with low convection coefficients, i.e. in natural convection.

Fig. 13. Heat sink effectiveness as a function of convection coefficient – Numerical simulations on a quarter model.

11
E. Foronda et al.
3.4.2. Sensitivity analysis
One of the main advantages of the parametric analysis by numerical
design of experiments described above is the definition of a response
surface adapted to the selected operating conditions. The response sur­
face allows to quantify the sensitivity of the input factors on the response
variable, i.e. the sensitivity of the minimum temperature of the heat sink
to the convection coefficient and the input temperature. Fig. 14 shows
the local sensitivity at 150 ◦ C and two values of forced convection (50
W/m2 ◦ C and 80 W/m2 ◦ C). The first relevant aspect of the sensitivity
analysis is the difference in the effect of the input temperature and the
convection coefficient on the minimum temperature of the heat sink. For
the case of the smooth heat sink, the magnitude of the local sensitivity of
the input temperature (68.4 %) is more than twice the sensitivity of the
convection coefficient (31.6 %). This difference suggests that the effect
of an increase in the input temperature cannot be compensated by the
value of the convection coefficient alone but requires changes in other
variables such as the geometry.
Conversely, the difference between the two input factors is smaller
for the textured heat sink. The difference between the sensitivity of the
input temperature and the convection coefficient is 29 % for 50 W/m2 ◦ C
and 1 % for 80 W/m2 ◦ C for the textured heat sink, while this difference
is 151 % for 50 W/m2 ◦ C and 116 % for 80 W/m2 ◦ C for the smooth heat
sink. Therefore, if the source temperature and the overall dimensions of
the heat sink are kept constant, the textured heat sink allows a signifi­
cant increase in performance by changing the convection coefficient. In
fact, the sensitivity of the convection coefficient is higher than the
sensitivity of the input temperature for the textured heat sink when the
highest convection coefficient is used. Finally, this result was found to be
relevant for high values of the input source temperature (the highest
value of the explored design space), confirming that the potential of
textured heat sinks increases for applications with high energy dissipa­
tion requirements. Furthermore, this demonstrates that textured fin
surfaces of air-cooled heat sinks can extend their capabilities for high
performance thermal applications, as previous research has shown for
texturing at the base of the heat sink [32–34].
4. Conclusions
Advancements in the electronics industry have increased the demand
for more efficient heat dissipation from cooling devices. Higher energy
density of transistors results in a necessity for more efficient heat sinks,
where efficiency is determined by the ratio of heat transfer to size. Thus,
the design of heat sinks usually focuses on improving the performance
by modifying the geometry, the flow of the cooling fluid, by proposing
innovative materials, or a combination of these factors. The present
Fig. 14. Local sensitivity analysis of convection coefficient and input temperature on the temperature of the cold face of the heat sink – Input temperature 150 ◦ C
(results on a quarter model).
12
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170
study experimentally and numerically examines the impact of surface
texturing on heat dissipation in heat sinks, with the goal of achieving
higher dissipation without increasing size or operating temperature.
The parametric analysis indicates that the textured heat sink out­
performs the plain heat sink since lower operating temperatures (a dif­
ference of more than 12 ◦ C or 17 % lower temperature level), and
increased heat dissipation (up to 28.6 % of increase in power dissipa­
tion), which is evidenced by a reduction of 34.4 % in thermal resistance,
and a heat sink effectiveness ranging from 21 % to 40 %. The heat sink
textures offer the additional benefit of reducing the weight by approx­
imately 12 %, which is especially useful for mobile applications that
currently cannot utilize liquid cooling. Texturing the heat sink surfaces
improves all of these performance metrics by increasing the surface area
by up to 50 % compared to plain heat sinks of the same size. The nu­
merical design of experiments allowed for a sensitivity analysis,
revealing the potential of textured heat sinks for applications requiring
high levels of heat dissipation. Thus, textured surfaces provide greater
benefits at higher temperatures and convection coefficients. This design
methodology can be used to design heat sinks for specific applications,
where expanding the heat sink’s size or the cooling fluid’s flow velocity
is not practically feasible due to weight, space and/or energy
constraints.
Moreover, statistical analysis of the surface temperatures for each
texture and convection type revealed that the horizontally textured
surface was the most appropriate for both natural and forced convec­
tion. However, the study of pressure drop and other related fluid­
–structure interactions is essential for heat dissipation applications (flow
shadowing, turbulence generation by the groove edges, thermal resis­
tance of the fin relative to the air boundary, effective heat transfer co­
efficient, inclusion of radiation effect, etc.). Further research is needed
to understand in detail the mechanisms of textured heat sinks that
enhance heat dissipation. In addition, optimizing the textured heat sink
parameters would be appropriate (geometric patterns, as well as their
depth and width). Moreover, the disturbance of the measurement field
due to the presence of the thermocouples and the implications it has on
temperature could be improved and infrared thermography will be
considered in future works. Finally, the development of a mass pro­
duction process could alleviate the time and cost difficulties associated
with the manufacture of textured heat sinks.
Authors’ contributions
E.F.O.: Software, Visualization, Formal analysis, Writing – original
draft, Writing – review & editing. F.J.R.G.: Contributed to the analysis
and writing of the paper. A.D.M: Validation, Methodology, Formal
E. Foronda et al.
analysis, Writing – original draft and Writing – review & editing. L.M.B.:
Methodology and Formal analysis. J.S.R.: Methodology, Formal anal­
ysis and Writing – review & editing. L.C.O.V.: Conceptualization,
Validation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft and
Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare the following financial interests/personal re­
lationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
Esteban Foronda Obando reports financial support was provided by
Pascual Bravo University Institution.
Data availability
The datasets generated or analyzed during the study are available
from the corresponding author upon a reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude for the financial
support provided by the Institución Universitaria Pascual Bravo with the
project IN202003“Desarrollo de un código de elementos finitos usando
Python y computación paralela en GPU para la evaluación de disipadores de
calor de alta complejidad geométrica”. We express our gratitude to the
Manufacturing and CNC Laboratory at Institución Universitaria Pascual
Bravo, and particularly to Javier Mejía and Esteban Rave.
References
[1] M.M. Sarafraz, V. Nikkhah, M. Nakhjavani, A. Arya, Thermal performance of a heat
sink microchannel working with biologically produced silver-water nanofluid:
experimental assessment, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 91 (2018) 509–519, https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2017.11.007.
[2] F.J. Ramírez-Gil, C.M. Pérez-Madrid, E.C.N. Silva, W. Montealegre-Rubio, Parallel
computing for the topology optimization method: performance metrics and energy
consumption analysis in multiphysics problems, Sustain. Comput. Inf. Syst. 30
(2021), 100481, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SUSCOM.2020.100481.
[3] D. Borba Marchetto, D. Carneiro Moreira, G. Ribatski, A review on polymer heat
sinks for electronic cooling applications, in: Proceedings of the 17th Brazilian
Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering, ABCM, São Paulo, 2018, doi:
10.26678/ABCM.ENCIT2018.CIT18-0394.
[4] Z. Zhang, X. Wang, Y. Yan, A review of the state-of-the-art in electronic cooling, e-
Prime – Adv. Electr. Eng. Electron. Energy 1 (2021), 100009, https://doi.org/
10.1016/J.PRIME.2021.100009.
[5] A. Benallou, Heat exchangers for electronic equipment cooling, in: L. Castro
Gómez, V. Manuel Velázquez Flores, M. Navarrete Procopio (Eds.), Heat
Exchangers, IntechOpen, 2022.
[6] F.J. Ramírez-Gil, Á. Delgado-Mejía, E. Foronda-Obando, L.C. Olmos-Villalba,
Thermal finite element analysis of complex heat sinks using open source tools and
high-performance computing, Revista Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de
Antioquia (2022), https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.redin.20220888.
[7] Z. Khattak, H.M. Ali, Air cooled heat sink geometries subjected to forced flow: a
critical review, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 130 (2019) 141–161.
[8] I.U. Perera, N. Narendran, Analysis of a remote phosphor layer heat sink to reduce
phosphor operating temperature, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 117 (2018) 211–222,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.10.016.
[9] S. Husain, S.A. Khan, A review on heat transfer enhancement techniques during
natural convection in vertical annular geometry, Clean Eng. Technol. 5 (2021),
100333, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CLET.2021.100333.
[10] R.V Unni, V.S. Majali, A review on rectangular heat sinks under natural convection,
Int. J. Adv. Sci. Technol. 27(7) (2019) 144–149, Accessed: Aug. 16, 2022. [Online],
Available: http://sersc.org/journals/index.php/IJAST/article/view/434.
[11] N.A.C. Sidik, M.N.A.W. Muhamad, W.M.A.A. Japar, Z.A. Rasid, An overview of
passive techniques for heat transfer augmentation in microchannel heat sink, Int.
Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 88 (2017) 74–83, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.
ICHEATMASSTRANSFER.2017.08.009.
[12] H.E. Ahmed, B.H. Salman, A.S. Kherbeet, M.I. Ahmed, Optimization of thermal
design of heat sinks: a review, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 118 (2018) 129–153,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.10.099.
[13] C.T. Nguyen, G. Roy, C. Gauthier, N. Galanis, Heat transfer enhancement using
Al2O3–water nanofluid for an electronic liquid cooling system, Appl. Therm. Eng.
27 (8) (2007) 1501–1506, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
applthermaleng.2006.09.028.
[14] X.Q. Wang, A.S. Mujumdar, A review on nanofluids - part II: experiments and
applications, Braz. J. Chem. Eng. 25 (4) (2008) 631–648, https://doi.org/10.1590/
S0104-66322008000400002.
13
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170
[15] X.F. Peng, G.P. Peterson, Convective heat transfer and flow friction for water flow
in microchannel structures, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 39 (12) (1996) 2599–2608,
https://doi.org/10.1016/0017-9310(95)00327-4.
[16] I. Hassan, P. Phutthavong, M. Abdelgawad, Microchannel heat sinks: an overview
of the state-of-the-art, Microscale Thermophys. Eng. 8 (3) (2004) 183–205, https://
doi.org/10.1080/10893950490477338.
[17] D.B. Tuckerman, R.F.W. Pease, High-performance heat sinking for VLSI, IEEE
Electron Device Lett. EDL-2 (5) (1981) 126–129, https://doi.org/10.1109/
EDL.1981.25367.
[18] D.B. Tuckerman, Heat-Transfer Microstructures for Integrated Circuits, University
of California, Livermore, California, 1984. Ph.D. Thesis.
[19] R.J. Phillips, Microchannel heat sinks, Lincoln Lab. J. 1 (1) (1988) 31–48.
[20] A. Mohammed Adham, N. Mohd-Ghazali, R. Ahmad, Thermal and hydrodynamic
analysis of microchannel heat sinks: a review, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 21
(2013) 614–622, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RSER.2013.01.022.
[21] S.V. Garimella, C.B. Sobhan, Transport in microchannels - a critical review, Ann.
Rev. Heat Transfer 13 (13) (2003) 1–50, https://doi.org/10.1615/
AnnualRevHeatTransfer.v13.30.
[22] Y. Peles, A. Koşar, C. Mishra, C.-J. Kuo, B. Schneider, Forced convective heat
transfer across a pin fin micro heat sink, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (17) (2005)
3615–3627, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2005.03.017.
[23] H.M. Metwally, R.M. Manglik, Enhanced heat transfer due to curvature-induced
lateral vortices in laminar flows in sinusoidal corrugated-plate channels, Int. J.
Heat Mass Transf. 47 (10–11) (2004) 2283–2292, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ijheatmasstransfer.2003.11.019.
[24] Y. Sui, C.J. Teo, P.S. Lee, Y.T. Chew, C. Shu, Fluid flow and heat transfer in wavy
microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 53 (13–14) (2010) 2760–2772, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2010.02.022.
[25] H.A. Mohammed, P. Gunnasegaran, N.H. Shuaib, Numerical simulation of heat
transfer enhancement in wavy microchannel heat sink, Int. Commun. Heat Mass
Transfer 38 (1) (2011) 63–68, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.
ICHEATMASSTRANSFER.2010.09.012.
[26] K. Bilen, U. Akyol, S. Yapici, Heat transfer and friction correlations and thermal
performance analysis for a finned surface, Energy Convers. Manag. 42 (9) (2001)
1071–1083, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0196-8904(00)00119-9.
[27] E.K. Kalinin, G.A. Dreitser, Heat transfer enhancement in heat exchangers, Adv.
Heat Transf. 31 (C) (1998) 159–332, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2717(08)
70242-9.
[28] S. Rashidi, F. Hormozi, B. Sundén, O. Mahian, Energy saving in thermal energy
systems using dimpled surface technology – a review on mechanisms and
applications, Appl. Energy 250 (2019) 1491–1547, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.
APENERGY.2019.04.168.
[29] S.V. Garimella, P.A. Eibeck, Heat transfer characteristics of an array of protruding
elements in single phase forced convection, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 33 (12)
(1990) 2659–2669, https://doi.org/10.1016/0017-9310(90)90202-6.
[30] A. Sohal, K. Kumar, R. Kumar, Heat transfer enhancement with channel surface
roughness: a comprehensive review, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. C: J. Mech. Eng. Sci.
236 (11) (2022) 6308–6334.
[31] D. Patel, V. Jain, J. Ramkumar, Micro texturing on metallic surfaces: state of the
art, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. B: J. Eng. Manuf. 232 (6) (2018) 941–964, https://doi.
org/10.1177/0954405416661583.
[32] G. Refai-Ahmed, B. Philofsky, V. Gektin, B. Sammakia, H. Do, S. Rangarajan, Best
engineering practices to establish cooling limit for 375W Add-in PCI-e center
accelerator card with active optical, in: 2019 IEEE 21st Electronics Packaging
Technology Conference, EPTC 2019, Dec. 2019, pp. 341–348, doi: 10.1109/
EPTC47984.2019.9026618.
[33] G. Refai-Ahmed et al., Establishing thermal air-cooled limit for high performance
electronics devices, in: 2020 IEEE 22nd Electronics Packaging Technology
Conference, EPTC 2020, Dec. 2020, pp. 347–354, doi: 10.1109/
EPTC50525.2020.9315139.
[34] G. Refai-Ahmed, S. Ramalingam, B.D. Philofsky, Thermal management device with
textured surface for extended cooling limit, U.S. Patent No. 9,812,374, 2017
Accessed: Jul. 25, 2023 [Online], Available: https://patents.google.com/pa
tent/US9812374B1/en.
[35] S. T, S.K. D, Heat transfer study on different surface textured pin fin heat sink, Int.
Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 119 (2020), 104902.
[36] G. Dhadda, M. Hamed, P. Koshy, Electrical discharge surface texturing for
enhanced pool boiling heat transfer, J. Mater. Process. Technol. 293 (2021),
117083, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2021.117083.
[37] G. Liang, I. Mudawar, Review of pool boiling enhancement by surface
modification, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 128 (2019) 892–933, https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.09.026.
[38] Y. Zhu, D.S. Antao, E.N. Wang, Bioinspired surfaces for enhanced boiling, in:
Bioinspired Engineering of Thermal Materials, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co.
KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2018, pp. 47–71, doi: 10.1002/9783527687596.ch3.
[39] I.A. Ghani, N.A.C. Sidik, R. Mamat, G. Najafi, T.L. Ken, Y. Asako, W.M.A.A. Japar,
Heat transfer enhancement in microchannel heat sink using hybrid technique of
ribs and secondary channels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 114 (2017) 640–655.
[40] G. Wang, D. Niu, F. Xie, Y. Wang, X. Zhao, G. Ding, Experimental and numerical
investigation of a microchannel heat sink (MCHS) with micro-scale ribs and
grooves for chip cooling, Appl. Therm. Eng. 85 (2015) 61–70, https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.04.009.
[41] S.W. Chang, T.M. Liou, M.H. Lu, Heat transfer of rectangular narrow channel with
two opposite scale-roughened walls, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (19–20) (2005)
3921–3931, https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJHEATMASSTRANSFER.2005.04.015.
E. Foronda et al.
[42] C. Greiner, M. Schäfer, Bio-inspired scale-like surface textures and their
tribological properties, Bioinspir. Biomim. 10 (4) (2015), 044001, https://doi.org/
10.1088/1748-3190/10/4/044001.
[43] P. Cuervo, D.A. López, J.P. Cano, J.C. Sánchez, S. Rudas, H. Estupiñán, A. Toro, H.
A. Abdel-Aal, Development of low friction snake-inspired deterministic textured
surfaces, Surf. Topogr. 4 (2) (2016), 024013, https://doi.org/10.1088/2051-672X/
4/2/024013.
[44] A. Toro, H.A. Abdel-Aal, E. Zuluaga, P. Cuervo, L.M. Ballesteros, J.C. Sánchez, J.
S. Rudas, C. Isaza, W.Z. Misiolek, Influence of surface morphology and internal
structure on the mechanical properties and tribological response of Boa Red Tail
and Python Regius snake skin, J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. Mater. 119 (2021),
104497, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2021.104497.
[45] E. Bormashenko, Wetting transitions on biomimetic surfaces, Philos. Trans. R. Soc.
A: Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 369 (1941) (2011) 1712, https://doi.org/10.1098/
rsta.2011.0038.
[46] L.M. Ballesteros, E. Zuluaga, P. Cuervo, J.S. Rudas, A. Toro, Tribological behavior
of polymeric 3D-printed surfaces with deterministic patterns inspired in snake skin
morphology, Surf. Topogr. 9 (1) (2021), 014002, https://doi.org/10.1088/2051-
672x/abe211.
[47] S.S. Banwait, H.N. Chandrawat, Study of thermal boundary conditions for a plain
journal bearing, Tribol. Int. 31 (6) (1998) 289–296, https://doi.org/10.1016/
S0301-679X(98)00029-2.
[48] N. Tala-Ighil, M. Fillon, P. Maspeyrot, Effect of textured area on the performances
of a hydrodynamic journal bearing, Tribol. Int. 44 (3) (2011) 211–219, https://doi.
org/10.1016/J.TRIBOINT.2010.10.003.
[49] A. Fatima, P.T. Mativenga, On the comparative cutting performance of nature-
inspired structured cutting tool in dry cutting of AISI/SAE 4140, Proc. Inst. Mech.
Eng. - Part B: J. Eng. Manuf. 231 (11) (2017) 1941–1948, https://doi.org/
10.1177/0954405415617930.
[50] N. Tala-Ighil, P. Maspeyrot, M. Fillon, A. Bounif, Effects of surface texture on
journal-bearing characteristics under steady-state operating conditions, Proc. Inst.
Mech. Eng., Part J: J. Eng. Tribol. 221 (6) (2007) 623–633.
14
Thermal Science and Engineering Progress 46 (2023) 102170
[51] B. Bhushan, Biomimetics: lessons from nature -an overview, Philos. Trans. R. Soc.
A: Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. 367 (1893) (2009) 1445–1486, https://doi.org/10.1098/
RSTA.2009.0011.
[52] I. Pope, J.P. Hidalgo, R.M. Hadden, J.L. Torero, A simplified correction method for
thermocouple disturbance errors in solids, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 172 (2022), 107324,
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJTHERMALSCI.2021.107324.
[53] D. Ross-Pinnock, P.G. Maropoulos, Identification of key temperature measurement
technologies for the enhancement of product and equipment integrity in the light
controlled factory, Proc. CIRP 25 (2014) 114–121.
[54] T. Masuzawa, State of the art of micromachining, CIRP Ann. 49 (2) (2000)
473–488, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-8506(07)63451-9.
[55] T. Pratap, K. Patra, Micro–nano surface texturing, characterization, and their
impact on biointerfaces, in: Advanced Machining and Finishing, Elsevier, 2021, pp.
577–610, doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-817452-4.00008-7.
[56] J.N. Reddy, D.K. Gartling, The Finite Element Method in Heat Transfer and Fluid
Dynamics, third edition, 2010, doi: 10.1201/9781439882573.
[57] A.I. Sato, C.A.C. Altemani, V.L. Scalon, Mean Nusselt number correlation for tise
heatsink thermal design, Revista de Engenharia Térmica 19 (1) (2020) 24, https://
doi.org/10.5380/reterm.v19i1.76427.
[58] J.C. Sánchez, H. Estupiñán, A. Toro, Friction response of bioinspired AISI 52100
steel surfaces texturized by photochemical machining, Surf. Topogr. 9 (1) (2021),
014001, https://doi.org/10.1088/2051-672X/abe090.
[59] H.A. Abdel-Aal, R. Vargiolu, H. Zahouani, M. El Mansori, Preliminary investigation
of the frictional response of reptilian shed skin, Wear 290–291 (2012) 51–60,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2012.05.015.
[60] D.D. Ma, G.D. Xia, Y.F. Li, Y.T. Jia, J. Wang, Effects of structural parameters on
fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in microchannel with offset zigzag
grooves in sidewall, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 101 (2016) 427–435, https://doi.org/
10.1016/J.IJHEATMASSTRANSFER.2016.04.091.