Balance regulation of heat transfer and flow performances of convective heat exchange of microchannel array structures

Abstract

As chip integration density increases, the demand for efficient thermal management becomes critical. Traditional microchannel structures often face a trade-off between heat transfer enhancement and increased flow resistance. To address this issue, this study proposes a novel reverse optimization strategy for microchannel array structures, inspired by the natural configurations of leaf veins and spider webs. The optimization process involves two key stages: first, minimizing the maximum thermal resistance of individual microchannel units; second, reducing overall flow resistance through an inverse design approach. The optimized structure is experimentally validated against randomly designed comparative structures. The results demonstrate that the optimized structure achieves a comprehensive performance improvement ranging from 1.54 to 4.47 times over comparative structures. Furthermore, within the scope of this study, the optimized configuration reduces the pressure drop by 23 %–81 % while maintaining high heat transfer efficiency. This research contributes to the development of optimized microchannel array designs for active thermal management systems.