Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement through Laser-Etched Heat Sinks: Elliptic Scale-Roughened and Cones Patterns

Luigi Ventola, Matteo Fasano, Roberta Cappabianca, Luca Bergamasco, Francesca Clerici, Luciano Scaltrito, Eliodoro Chiavazzo and Pietro Asinari
Additional contact information
Luigi Ventola: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Matteo Fasano: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Roberta Cappabianca: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Luca Bergamasco: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Francesca Clerici: Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Luciano Scaltrito: Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Eliodoro Chiavazzo: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Pietro Asinari: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: The efficient dissipation of localized heat flux by convection is a key request in several engineering applications, especially electronic ones. The recent advancements in manufacturing processes are unlocking the design and industrialization of heat exchangers with unprecedented geometric characteristics and, thus, performance. In this work, laser etching manufacturing technique is employed to develop metal surfaces with designed microstructured surface patterns. Such precise control of the solid-air interface ( artificial roughness ) allows to manufacture metal heat sinks with enhanced thermal transmittance with respect to traditional flat surfaces. Here, the thermal performance of these laser-etched devices is experimentally assessed by means of a wind tunnel in a fully turbulent regime. At the highest Reynolds number tested in the experiments ( R e L ≈ 16 , 500 ), elliptic scale-roughened surfaces show thermal transmittances improved by up to 81% with respect to heat sinks with flat surface. At similar testing conditions, cones patterns provide an enhancement in Nusselt number and thermal transmittance of up to 102% and 357%, respectively. The latter results are correlated with the main geometric and thermal fluid dynamics descriptors of the convective heat transfer process in order to achieve a predictive model of their performance. The experimental evidence shown in this work may encourage and guide a broader use of micro-patterned surfaces for enhancing convective heat transfer in heat exchangers.

Keywords: convective heat transfer; heat transfer enhancement; heat sink; electronics cooling; microstructured surface; laser etching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/6/1360/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/6/1360/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:6:p:1360-:d:332716

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().