Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics of Bidirectional Curved Wavy Microchannels

Compared with straight microchannels, wavy microchannels have been shown to significantly improve the heat transfer capability of microchannel heat sinks. The present study introduces a bidirectional curved wavy microchannel design aimed at enhancing performance. The thermo-hydraulic performance of bidirectional curved and ordinary wavy microchannels within the Reynolds number range of 300–800 is analyzed numerically under a constant heat flux. The results indicate that the bidirectional curved microchannel achieves optimal performance at an inlet velocity of 0.6 m/s. Compared with the ordinary wavy microchannel, the comprehensive performance factor of the bidirectional curved wavy microchannel with A2 = 2 mm and λ2 = 8 mm increases by 48% under the same inlet Reynolds number. For the preferred bidirectional curved wavy microchannel with A2 = 2 mm and λ2 = 12 mm, the average secondary flow intensity is enhanced by 153%, the comprehensive performance factor reaches 1.35, and the minimum entropy generation rate decreases by 6.87%. The enhanced heat transfer is attributed to the increased main flow velocity and the secondary flow intensity due to the bidirectional curve, which promotes coolant mixing.