Printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs) with micro pin-fins offer a promising solution for recuperators in space Brayton cryocooler. However, multilayer PCHE structures impose unique mechanical stress and pressure drop constraints, requiring wide-spacing, low-profile pin-fin configurations that differ fundamentally from the narrow-spacing, high-profile geometries extensively studied for electronic cooling applications. Moreover, cryogenic working fluids exhibit different heat transfer and flow behavior compared to conventional fluids, requiring specific investigation. Therefore, this study develops multi-level numerical models to investigate heat transfer and flow characteristics in low-profile, wide-spacing micro pin-fin channels (Hf/d = 0.3–0.8, S/d = 2–5), focusing on cryogenic fluids (helium, neon, and nitrogen) operating at 20 K to 300 K. The sensitivity analysis systematically examines key geometric parameters, including longitudinal spacing (SL/d = 2–5), transverse spacing (ST/d = 2–5), and pin-fin height (Hf/d = 0.3–0.8) on both channel-level thermal-hydraulic characteristics and system-level PCHE performance. Field synergy theory and secondary flow intensity analysis are employed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Subsequently, new correlations for Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f) are developed for micro pin-fins with cryogenic fluids. These correlations demonstrate good agreement with numerical data, achieving average relative deviations in Nu and f predictions of 8.0 % and 18.5 %, respectively. Validation against 80 K experimental PCHE data, the proposed correlations significantly improve prediction accuracy by 54.6-93.1 % for heat transfer effectiveness. The findings provide essential design guidelines for applications requiring low-profile, wide-spacing micro pin-fin configurations, including PCHEs, micro-reactors, and cryogenic thermal management systems.
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