International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Review

Hydrothermal performance of microchannel heat sink: The effect

of channel design
Ihsan Ali Ghani a,b, Nor Azwadi Che Sidik a,⇑, Natrah Kamaruzaman a
a
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Al-Mustansiriyah University, Iraq

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This review article reports the influence of channel zone related geometrical parameters such as corru-
Received 16 August 2016 gated channel and flow disruption (FD) on the hydrothermal performance (HP) of microchannel heat sink
Received in revised form 8 November 2016 (MCHS). Rapid increase in the power density accompanied by extreme miniaturization of electronic pack-
Accepted 8 November 2016
ages that demanded efficient cooling in MCHS is still to be explored. Despite several dedicated efforts for
enhancing the heat transfer (HT) in MCHS an optimized technique is far from developed. The passive HT
augmentation techniques for conventional channel also suffered from many limitations. In this context,
Keywords:
corrugated channel appears as one of the prospective strategies due to the generation of Dean vortices
Microchannel heat sink
Flow disruption
(DVs) and chaotic advection (CA) in the bends. For efficient cooling, various channel shapes such as sinu-
Microchannel design soidal wavy, zigzag and convergent-divergent are introduced. The wavy MCHS with sinusoidal shape
A review achieved high rate of HT with acceptable levels of PD compared with other shapes of zigzag and
convergent-divergent MCHS. The other augmentation technique so called FD is established to be effective
due to several interesting mechanisms including promotion of flow mixing, interruption of boundary
layer, jetting, throttling and CA. Diverse FD methods such as grooves, cavities, ribs, hybridized ribs and
grooves or cavities, offset-fin and interrupted wall channel are proposed. The hybrid techniques between
ribs and either grooves or cavities have additional advantages than single technique in isolation. These
features are manifested in increasing the HT area, induction of better fluid mixing and formation CA.
The most important characteristic within flow disturbance techniques is found in interrupted-wall chan-
nel which manifested low PD. It is established to be the most desirable feature in MCHS applications due
to its role in reducing the pump power and liquid leakage risk. We analyzed, discussed and made a com-
parative evaluation among various characteristics of geometrical parameters in each such technique to
determine their impact on the HP of MCHS in terms of pressure drop (PD) and HT.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2. Corrugated channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1. Dean vortices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2. Chaotic advection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3. Corrugated MCHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3.1. Wavy MCHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3.2. Zigzag MCHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3. Flow disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.1. Cavities in MCHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2. Ribs in MCHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Abbreviations: CA, chaotic advection; CC, corrugated channel; CD-MCHS, convergent-divergent microchannel heat sink; DVs, Dean vortices; FD, flow disruption; FF,
friction factor; GMCHS, grooved microchannel heat sink; HP, hydrothermal performance; HTE, heat transfer enhancement; HT, heat transfer; MC, microchannel; MCHS,
microchannel heat sink; PD, pressure drop; TR, thermal resistance; ZMCHS, zigzag microchannel heat sink.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: azwadi@mail.fkm.utm.my (N.A.C. Sidik).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.11.031
0017-9310/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
22 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
3.3. Effect of ribs and grooves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4. Offset strip fins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5. Interrupted-wall channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
Lately, rapid growth in the electronic industry has witnessed
ultra-large-scale-integrated-circuit (ULSIC) as new generation high
performing dense chip packages. However, such miniaturization
causes the production of highly concentrated heat flux. This heat
flux that raises the substrate temperature and creates hot spots
is detrimental for the devices unless overcome. Any failure of
removing such a high heat flux accelerates the meantime to failure
(MTTF) and shortens the life span of electronic devices or even per-
manent damage [1]. Thus, appropriate thermal management of
microelectronics is prerequisite to surmount the heat flux related
damages. This is considered to be the major obstacle towards
further development of integrated electronic technologies.
According to the international technology roadmap for semicon-
ductors (ITRS), the peak power consumption of high- and low-
performance integrated chips is expected to increase by 96%
(147–288 W) and 95% (91–158 W) in 2016, respectively. The
estimated amount of heat that need to be removed from the new
14 nm chip is higher than 100 W/cm2 [2].
Earlier, air-cooling method is extensively used for heat removal
from integrated circuits due to its several attractive features such
as low initial cost, high reliability, low operating maintenance cost,
and high compatibility with micro-electronic environment [3].
However, with the rapid increase in power density and miniatur-
ization of electronic packages this method became limited to sat-
isfy the cooling demands. Use of various liquids as an alternative
to air is proposed due to their high specific heat capacity and HT
coefficient. Several micro cooling methods are developed including
micro-jet impingement, micro-heat pipe, micro-electro-
hydrodynamic and MCHS. Among different micro-cooling methods
the MCHS is appeared to be most prospective, which can remove
heat at very high rate up to 790 W/cm2 [4]. The central concept
of MC is relying on its ability to provide the large HT surface-to-
volume ratio. MCs are used for two types of cooling such as
single-phase and two-phase. Single-phase being easy for imple-
mentation is often used to remove intermediate heat fluxes.
Although the two-phase can remove higher heat flux but it
involves complex issues such as condensation, critical heat flux,
saturation temperature, nucleation site activation etc. [5].
The flow in conventional straight MCHS is predominantly
within laminar flow regime because of the tiny size of the chan-
nels, which does not allow the flow to transit to the turbulent
regime. Besides, in the conventional straight MCHS the accumula-
tion of hotter fluid at the channel wall and cooler fluid along the
channel core due to continuous growth of thermal boundary layer
degrades the HT in MCHS. Most of the early studies tried to
improve the thermal performance of conventional straight rectan-
gular MCHS by manipulating channel aspect ratio, channel length
and wall thickness [6–9]. Some researchers manipulated the
cross-section shape of MC (e.g. circular, triangular, and trapezoidal)
[10–15] for the performance enhancement. Alfaryjat et al. [16]
studied numerically the influence of geometrical parameters on
the thermal performance of MC, where three cross-section channel
shapes including hexagonal, circular and rhombus are considered.
Hexagonal cross-section revealed the highest PD and HT coeffi-
cient. Channel with rhombus cross-section exhibited highest value
of friction factor (FF) and thermal resistance (TR). Gunnasegaran
34
37
37
40
43
et al. [17] examined the effect of varying cross-sectional shapes
(rectangular, trapezoidal and triangle) on the HP performance of
MCHS. Rectangular shape channel displayed maximum HT aug-
mentation followed by trapezoidal and triangular MCHS.
Despite the implementation of complex cross-sectional shapes,
a precise geometry for disrupting the thermal boundary layer
beyond the entrance region and subsequent achievement of
enhanced HP is yet to be developed. An optimized strategy is
needed to overcome the continuous heat generation due to exces-
sive power consumption by high-performing integrated chips.
Researchers took the advantages of heat transfer augmentation
methods of conventional channels and applied them in MCHS.
Tao et al. [18] suggested three strategies for the single-phase HT
enhancement (HTE) such as reduction of the thermal boundary
layer thickness, increase of both flow disruptions and velocity gra-
dient near the heated surface. To promote HT in MCHS, Steinke and
Kandlikar [19] and Kandlikar and Grande [3] developed several
techniques such as increase of surface area and HT coefficient using
interrupted and staggered strip-fin design, increase of local HT
coefficient by breaking boundary layer through periodic construc-
tion, incorporation of grooves and ridges, and incorporation of mix-
ing features to improve the mixing flow.
Numerous studies have attempted to review different tech-
niques which aimed to enhance heat transfer in MCHS. Steinke
and Kandlikar [19] have reviewed the applicability of passive and
active heat transfer enhancement techniques in minichannels
and microchannels. They also conducted a comprehensive evalua-
tion and discuss the possibility of applying these techniques with
novel applications in MCHS. These techniques include; flow dis-
ruption, channel curvature, re-entrant obstructions, secondary
flows, out of plane mixing, fluid additives, surface roughness and
surface treatment. Tullius et al. [20] reviewed different techniques
used in efforts to modify MCHS in both single- and two-phase lam-
inar flow. Some surface modifications discussed include adding
micro-fins, adding grooves, increasing surface roughness, etc. They
also focused on characteristics of using Carbon nanotubes (CNT) in
the structure of MCHS to improve thermal performance due to the
high thermal conductivity. Adham et al. [21] performed a compre-
hensive review of available studies regarding non-circular MCHS,
with emphasis on rectangular MC. The review demonstrated the
methodologies used to analyse and optimize the overall perfor-
mance of MC systems with channel geometries, flow conditions,
the coolants used, structural materials and optimization tools.
Recently, Dewan et al. [22] conducted a comprehensive review of
flow disruption in microchannel. They demonstrated the recent
researches of using FD techniques in microchannel.
Considering the rapid development, gamut research excitement
and recent progress on geometrical parameters assisted enhanced
HT in MCHS we provide a comprehensive review on various issues
related to the role of channel zone parameters on the HP of MCHS.
A special consideration has been focused on the effects of geomet-
rical parameters and its role on the flow behaviour and heat trans-
fer in MCHS. These effects specify the performance of proposed
design MCHS based on two desired features in MCHS applications;
highest rate of heat transfer at lowest pressure drop across the
MCHS. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the
characteristics for significant flow mixing enhancement in corru-
gated channel. This relates two flow mechanisms such as Dean
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Vortices and chaotic advection. An evaluation is made to determine
the impact of these mechanisms on HP for various types of corru-
gated MCHS with varying geometrical parameters. Section 3 high-
lights the flow disruptions techniques for conventional channels.
Various types of flow disruptions that are used in MCHS such as
grooves, ribs, hybrid technique, offset strip fins and interrupted-
wall channel are explained. Section 4 concludes the paper.
2. Corrugated channel
Certainly, corrugated channels are one of the important applica-
tions in the field of passive heat transfer augmentation methods.
Using this technique a significant enhancement in the flow mixing
between hotter fluid layers near channel wall and cooler fluid lay-
ers in core region is demonstrated. Induction of high flow mixing is
attributed to the mechanisms of DVs and CA. It is customary to
understand in details these mechanisms.
2.1. Dean vortices
The fluid flow through curved trajectory inside curved channel
generates centrifugal force. Consequently, the pressure becomes
maximum at the outer wall and minimum at the inner wall. To bal-
ance such centrifugal force, a pressure gradient is required across
the channel. This pressure gradient is manifested as a secondary
flow in the form of counter-rotating roll cells pair known as Dean
roll-cells [23] as depicted in Fig. 1. Dean [24,25] first made a theo-
retical prediction of secondary flow caused by centrifugal force,
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of curved rectangular channel describing the effect of centrifugal force for the formation of Dean roll-cells, and (b) velocity streamlines of Dean
roll-cells [23].
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram describing the formation of Dean Vortices in circular cross-section (a) when DN < DNc, forming of pair of counter-rotating roll cells known as Dean
roll-cells (b) when DN > DNc, another pair of counter-rotating vortices called DVs [26].
23
where a perturbation analysis was conducted for flow in a channel
with large curvature ratio (R/a). The analysis showed that the fric-
tion loss is a function of a new parameter named Dean Number
p
(DN = Re a/R).
At higher DN, the two-cell flow become unstable due to the
imbalance between the inward pressure gradient and the outward
centrifugal force [23]. This instability generates another pair of
counter-rotating vortices called DVs [26] as illustrated in Fig. 2
which appear close to the outer concave wall of the tube or outer
wall of the channel.
Various numerical studies [23,26,27] are performed to analyse
the behaviour of DVs in curved duct and pipe by tracing these vor-
tices as a function of altering DNs. It is established that DVs are
transformed from two- to four- cell pattern at specific DN called
critical DN (DNc). Sugiyama et al. [27] confirmed the occurrence
of secondary flow pattern in curved rectangular channel using flow
visualization. Experiment is carried out using the aspect ratio (AR)
ranged between 0.5–2.5, curvature ratio (CR) varied from 5 to 8
and width of 20 mm. Results displayed the emergence of addi-
tional pairs of vortices near the outer concave wall, where the
value of DNc is increased with decreasing aspect ratio as shown
in Fig. 3.
Kalb and Seader [28] examined the fully developed viscous flow
in curved circular tubes and quantified the effect of DVs on the
pressure loss and HT. Fully developed viscous flow and HT in
curved semi-circular sector is studied numerically by Masliah
and Nandakumar [29]. The enhancement factor (the ratio of
Nusselt number to the FF) of curved semi-circular to the straight
24 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44

Fig. 3. Flow visualization of curved rectangular channel with different aspect ratio describing the Dean roll-cells and DVs for: (a) AR = 0.5 and DN = 203 (b) AR = 1 and
DN = 183 (c) AR = 2.5 and DN = 174 [27].

semi-circular ducts is found to be greater than unity, which is
increased with the increase of both DN and Prandtl number. For
curved rectangular channel, Cheng and Akiyama [30] achieved an
enhancement in Nusselt number ratio up to 2 and FF ratio up to
1.8. Fletcher and co-authors [31–35] inspected a fully developed
laminar flow and HT in periodic corrugated channels with different
cross-section shapes, where DVs are emerged when the liquid
coolant is flown through the bends. Furthermore, these vortices
revealed significant effect on HT enhancement as compared to
straight channel, in which the PD penalty is discerned to be much
smaller than HTE. Manglik et al. [36,37] investigated numerically
the laminar forced convection of air in wavy plate-fin channel in
both 2D and 3D. Simulation results in 2D showed the presence of
flow recirculation with lateral swirl in trough regions of the wavy
channel. Conversely, the 3D results revealed symmetric pairs of
DVs in the cross sections of the sinusoidal channel. In both cases,
a great enhancement in the HT performance with high PD penalty
is accomplished.
2.2. Chaotic advection
The CA is another significant mechanism responsible for
enhanced mixing and HT in tortuous passages [38,39] of MC.
According to the theory of dynamical system, chaotic particle
movement in the velocity field can emerge both in 2D with time-
dependence and in 3D without or with time-dependence. The
enhanced mixing that is accompanied by the CA is a consequence
of the rapid distortion and elongation of material interfaces [40],
which also widens the effective diffusion domain. Aref [41]
demonstrated this phenomenon by developing a model called
blinking vortex, where a numerical study is carried out to study
the flow in cylindrical tank with two agitators moving continu-
ously or alternately. Simulation results indeed revealed a chaotic
flow when the agitators underwent an alternate movement period-
ically. Peerhossaini and co-authors [26,38,42] performed a series of
experiments with two configurations of curved pipe in heat
exchanger. The first one (helical) generated a regular Dean flow
inside the helical heat exchanger as illustrated in Fig. 4. The second
configuration (chaotic) is designed for generating CA where each
bend is rotated by 90o with respect to the neighbouring one as
depicted in Fig. 5. The heat exchanger in the second configuration
achieved 15–18% higher efficiency than the first one as shown in
Fig. 6.
Fletcher et al. [39] scrutinized the effect of CA on the flow and
HT in zigzag channels having semi-circular cross-section. The
Reynolds number (50–320) and Prandtl number (0.7–20) is varied
for the laminar flow under consideration. The CA is found to occur
for Reynolds number above 200. The emergence of CA led to the
loss of periodicity of flow patterns which in turn altered the
Nusselt number and FF.

Fig. 4. (a) Helical heat exchanger (b) regular Dean Flow in cross-section of helical heat exchanger Ref. [38].
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 5. (a) Chaotic heat exchanger (b) schematic of bend which is rotated by 90° with respect to the neighbouring [38].
Fig. 6. Reynolds number dependent thermal performance factor for helical and
chaotic configurations [38].
2.3. Corrugated MCHS
The characteristics of flow passage in serpentine configuration
are useful for microfluidic cooling applications including wavy, zig-
zag and convergent-divergent MCHS. The following sub-sections
briefly explain their operational principles.
2.3.1. Wavy MCHS
Sui et al. [5] examined numerically the laminar flow and HT in
3D wavy MCHS with rectangular cross-section. Using dynamic
technique (Poincare section), the properties of fluid mixing is
determined. The results revealed the emergence of a secondary
flow (DVs) for liquid flow through wavy MCHS. Meanwhile, the
quantity and the location of the vortices are found to alter along
the flow direction, which created CA and enhanced the convective
fluid mixing. Consequently, the HT performance of wavy MCHS is
enhanced. The HT is increased with increasing waviness of the wall
while the PD penalty appeared much smaller than heat transfer
enhancement. To alter the relative wave amplitude along the flow
direction, two novel designs are proposed. In the first design, wavi-
ness is increased along the flow direction. In second design, the
waviness is locally increased at high heat flux region as shown in
25
Fig. 7. Interestingly, both the designs displayed high thermal per-
formance with HTE factor ranged from 1.71 to 2.95 and the PD pen-
alty factor ranged from 1.38 to 2.
The flow and HT in sinusoidal MCHS with rectangular cross-
sections are experimentally investigated [43]. Each MC is consisted
of ten wavy unit having depth of 404 lm, average width of
205 lm, wavy amplitudes (138 lm, 259 lm) and wavelength of
2.5 mm. Deionized water is used as a working fluid with varying
Reynolds number (300 to 800). The Nusselt number of wavy MC
is compared with straight MC having same cross section and foot-
print length. The HT performance of the wavy MCs is found to
much better than that of straight one with increased HTE factor
up to 211%. Furthermore, the PD penalty of wavy MCs is discerned
to be much lower than the HTE with maximum increment in PD
penalty factor up to 76%. Numerically simulation using particle
tracking and Poincare sections verified the occurrence of CA which
greatly enhanced the fluid mixing and HT. Meanwhile, the DVs that
are appeared in the cross section of wavy MC displayed a signifi-
cant variation in their patterns along the flow direction (Fig. 8).
Sui et al. [44] examined the fully developed flow and HT in
periodic wavy channel with rectangular cross-section, where the
Reynolds numbers are spanned corresponding to steady laminar
to transitional flow regimes. A symmetric secondary flow or DVs
are observed to form when the liquid flow passed the bends. Fur-
ther increase in the Reynolds number, led the flow to turn from
steady state to periodic one with single frequency. In this stage,
the flow is characterized by complex DVs with temporal and spa-
tial evolution pattern along the flow direction. Nevertheless, the
wavy MCHS achieved much superior HT than straight MCHS
because of efficient mixing in wavy channel. Moreover, the PD pen-
alty in wavy MCHS is determined to be much smaller than HTE.
Mohammed et al. [45] investigated numerically the laminar forced
convection in wavy MCHS with rectangular cross-section, where a
wide range of wavy amplitude (125–500) with Reynolds number in
the range of 100 to 1000 are covered. The heat sink is consisted of
25 wavy MC with hydraulic diameter of 339 lm and total length of
10 mm. The HP of wavy MC is found to enhance with increasing
wavy amplitude except for 500 lm. Besides, the PD and FF are
increased proportionally with the increase of wavy amplitude.
Xie et al. [46,47] conducted a comparative study on HP for
straight rectangular MCHS (SRC) with two kinds such as transverse
wavy MCHS (TWC) and longitudinal wavy MCHS (LWC) as illus-
trated in Fig. 9b and c respectively. Numerical simulation is per-
formed for laminar flow and HT with Reynolds number ranged
from 100 to 230, hydraulic diameter of 160 lm and AR of 4:1.
The TWC (with amplitudes TWC1 = 200 lm and TWC2 = 237.5 lm)
is established superior for reducing the PD than SRC and LWC (with
26 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44

Fig. 7. The waviness dependent variation of temperature distribution and local Nusselt number along the MC for: (a) increased waviness along the flow direction (b) locally
increased waviness in the middle of [5].

Fig. 8. (a) Poincare sections obtained from particle tracking, and (b) DVs at section 5L for wavy channel with A = 259 lm at Re = 600 [43].

amplitudes LWC1 = 25 lm and LWC2 = 30 lm). The overall evalu-
ation of thermal resistance (TR) and PD for these three types of
MCHS’s revealed that transverse wavy MCHS produced the lowest
PD for the same range of TR as shown in Fig. 9a. This authenticates
the superiority of transverse wavy MCHS over other types.
Abed et al. [48] examined the HT and fluid flow in wavy MCHS
with square cross-section by covering a broad range of DN from
0.07 to 106.5 for two values of Prandtl number (137 and 1038). A
mixture of glycerine-water is used as working fluid with varying
ratios (30:70 and 10:90 in wt%) to achieve the desired Prandtl
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 9. (a) Comparison of PD versus TR for; two type of transverse MCHS(TW1, TW2), two types of longitudinal MCHS(LW1, LW2) and straight rectangular MCHS, (b) generic
structure of TMC (c) generic structure of LMC [46].
Fig. 10. Velocity vectors in: (a) serpentine wavy MCHS, (b) raccoon wavy MCHS [49].
numbers. The Nusselt number and FF are increased with increasing
in DN due to the flow mixing enhancement. Furthermore, the ther-
mal efficiency is increased, where Prandtl number of 137 and 1038
produced a ratio of 85% and 53%, respectively.
Convergent-divergent MCHS (CD-MCHS) is another type of cor-
rugated channels where the periodic constriction and expansion of
cross-section area leads to flow acceleration and deceleration. Con-
sequently, vortices and secondary flow arise at trough region due
to the pressure gradient which significantly enhances flow mixing.
Gong et al. [49] studied the 3D laminar fluid flow and HT character-
istics in two types of wavy MCHS including serpentine wavy chan-
nels (SWCs) and raccoon wavy channels (RWCs) with rectangular
cross-section having hydraulic diameter of 500 lm. The effects of
wave amplitude, wavelength, and aspect ratio for different Rey-
nolds numbers (50 and 150) on the HT performance are evaluated.
For serpentine wavy MCHS, an increase in wave amplitude or
decrease in wavelength is found to produce similar effect, where
the maximum velocity got shifted from the centreline towards
the trough and crest regions. This shift caused a reduction of ther-
mal boundary layer thickness and enhanced the HT as illustrated in
Fig. 10a. Furthermore, an increase in the aspect ratio is observed to
reduce the boundary layers thickness. For raccoon wavy MCHS
(Fig. 10b) an increase in wave amplitude and decrease in wave
length led to the formation of vortices and secondary flow at fur-
rows which in turn enhanced the HT. Meanwhile, large wave
amplitude narrowed down the channels sections more and con-
tributed to high PD. The performance factor of SWC is discerned
to be superior over RWC due to the higher pressure losses. Yet,
27
the performance of wavy MCHS exceeded that of straight channel
by up to 55%.
The hydrothermal performance (HP) of CD-MCHS is numerically
evaluated for fully developed flow under forced convection [2].
Effects of Reynolds number and expansion factor on the occurrence
of CA are determined. The CA is found to occur at smaller expan-
sion factor and higher Reynolds number. It indicated that a minor
modification to channel geometry could create CA at high Reynolds
number. The fluid flow driven improved HT performance is majorly
attributed to three mechanisms. First, the HT for smaller values of
waviness is increased with Reynolds number due to the increment
in HT area. Second, further increase in waviness led to the creation
of two counter rotating vortices in the trough region which in turn
reduced the HT. Last, the mutation of flow advection towards chaos
may increase the HT. These three mechanisms led to the fluctua-
tions in Nusselt number as demonstrated Fig. 11. The performance
factor showed a highest value at low waviness as illustrates in
Fig. 11c.
The effect of flow mixing on heat transfer enhancement (HTE) of
CD-MCHS is numerically examined [50] for fully developed flow
having varying Reynolds numbers (50–200). Besides, flow visual-
ization is made using laser on enlarged transparent Perspex model.
Two types of CD-MCHS such as sinusoidal and constant curvature
profiles are tested. Both configurations showed similar flow pat-
tern with the formation of a couple of symmetrical re-circulating
vortices at the channel furrows which is further enlarged with
increasing amplitude ratio. These vortices enhanced the flow mix-
ing between cold fluid near central core region and hot fluid near
28 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44

Fig. 11. (a) Geometrical parameters of CD-MCHS S (aspect-ratio), k (waviness) and c (expansion factor) (b) wavelength dependent variation of Nusselt number for different
aspect ratio (0.5–2) at Reynolds number of 600 (c) wavelength dependent variation of performance factor for different aspect ratio (0.5–2) at Reynolds number of 600 [2].

Fig. 12. Streamline plots at the upper furrow of the channel for: (a) sinusoidal CD-MCHS, and (b) constant curvature CD-MCHS at different amplitude ratios (A/L) with
Re = 100 [50].

the wall. Consequently, the HT is enhanced. Larger width is found
to inhibit the formation of vortices at channel furrows, while the
smaller width led to the domination of vortices on flow stream.
Thus, the incoming mainstream fluid flow is retarded. The opti-
mum values of aspect ratio are found to be 0.5 and 1 under their
conditions considered. Moreover, the HT is enhanced with the
increase of amplitude ratio. Conversely, increasing in amplitude
ratio restricted both the inlet and outlet zone. Thus, the occurrence
of a significant pressure loss deteriorated the overall thermal per-
formance of MCHS. The recirculation of vortices in the sinusoidal
channel is determined to be more uniform and covered the entire
furrow region than the constant curvature channel. Thus, sinu-
soidal CD-MCHS achieved superior HP than constant curvature
one as illustrated in Figs. 12 and 13.
2.3.2. Zigzag MCHS
Mohammed et al. [51] studied the effect of channels shape on
the HP of MCHS. Three different shapes (same cross-section) of
MCHS such as zigzag, wavy and step are considered. The perfor-
mance of zigzag MCHS (ZMCHS) is compared with that of straight
and wavy one. The thermal performance of ZMCHS is found to be
the best with regard to temperature and HT coefficient. Further-
more, ZMCHS revealed the highest PD followed by a wavy, curvy
and step types. Zheng et al. [39] examined the flow and HT
characteristics of ZMCHS with semi-circular cross-section at steady
conditions within a laminar regime. Reynolds number is varied
from 50 to 320 and the Prandtl number is ranged from 0.7 to 20.
The channel consisted of ten repeating zigzag units with
smoothing joint in the inlet and outlet. Numerical results revealed
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 13. Performance factor for sinusoidal and constant curvature CD-MCHS for
different amplitude ratios with Re = 50, 100, 150, and 200 [50].
the appearance of CA for Reynolds number above 200 with geo-
metric parameter values of Rc/d = 0.51 (ratio of the radius of the
curvature to the channel diameter), Lz/d = 1.75 (ratio of half unit
length to channel diameter) and H = 45° (bend angle). The period-
icity of flow pattern is disappeared in the chaotic regime. Besides,
the PD and HT coefficient displayed fluctuations. The Nusselt num-
ber is observed to be proportional to Prandtl number of one-third
exponent (Pr1/3). The effects of these three geometrical parameters
on HTE and PD penalty are inspected. A decrease in the value of
Lz/d is observed to increase the fluctuation in the HTE factor,
implying the emergence of chaotic flow pattern (Fig. 14).
Moreover, the PD is increased with decreasing value of Lz/d. The
parameter Rc/d represented the degree of the sharpness in the
bends. A decreasing value of Rc/d increased both HT and PD
(Fig. 15). A variation of bend angle from 5 to 40° noticeably affected
the HTE and PD at different Reynolds numbers. Both HT and the PD
are increased with increasing bend angle as depicted in Fig. 16.
Dai et al. [52] performed an experiment on a zigzag with
semicircular cross-section ZMCHS having diameter of 2 mm using
high-speed micro-PIV technique and measured the flow velocity
for different Reynolds numbers (50–900). The effect of inlet
unsteadiness on the flow features is examined. The flow transition
from steady to unsteady state that occurred at critical Reynolds
Fig. 14. Lz/d dependent variation of (a) HTE factor eNu and (b) PD penalty factor ef [39].
29
number of 215 is found lower than the predicted value. Results
revealed that the early transition is due to the flow disturbances
at the inlet. Besides, the CA is observed to be very sensitive to ines-
capable fluctuations in the flow rate at the inlet. In another exper-
imental study [53], they determined the HT and hydrodynamic
properties for zigzag and sinusoidal MCHS having the same cross
section. The use of high-speed micro-PIV technique allowed them
to track and identify the 3D complex vortical structures in wavy
MCHS. Results affirmed that the occurrence of flow recirculation
and secondary flow at the bends are responsible for HTE. This
improvement in the heat transfer is attributed to the continuous
disruption to thermal boundary layer. The ZMCHS (ea = 0.91–
0.99) owing to larger HT area outperformed the sinusoidal channel
(ea = 0.81–0.89).
According to Table 1, taking in consideration the fabrication
complexity and flexibility in application, it can be conclude that
longitudinal sinusoidal wavy MCHS showed a high HTE with mod-
erate pressure drop is more suitable electronic cooling applica-
tions. Besides, it has an ability to treat the local hot spot by
increasing locally the waviness at high heat flux region.
3. Flow disruption
Flow disruption (FD) is one of the HT augmentation methods. It
gets manifested due to the triggering of flow instabilities which is
responsible for increased flow mixing and enhancement of HT. Tur-
bulent flow is one of common example of FD that depends on the
hydraulic instability to acquire higher flow mixing. However, in
many applications, the flow is unable to reach critical Reynolds
number because of low velocities or small hydraulic diameters.
Thus, dedicated efforts are made to utilize the geometrical modifi-
cations to the side walls of channels for promoting the flow insta-
bilities and improved mixing. One of the effective methods for
achieving it is to set up periodic disturbance promoters such as
grooves, ribs, communicating and fins along the flow direction.
These disturbance promoters are established to be effective for
triggering the self-sustained oscillations that excite flow instabili-
ties. Extensive studies are conducted using various disturbance
promoters in conventional channels to enhance the flow mixing.
Amon et al. [54] examined the effect of self-sustained oscillatory
flow on HT in communicating channels, which positively impacted
the HT via enhanced flow mixing. The numerical simulation of
30 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44

Fig. 15. Rc/d dependent variation of (a) HTE factor eNu and (b) PD penalty factor ef [39].

Fig. 16. Bend angle (h) dependent variation of (a) HTE factor eNu and (b) PD penalty factor ef [39].

Table 1
A summary of relevant literature on the effect of wavy MCHS on the HT and PD.

Type of wavy MCHS Pressure drop Heat transfer Reynolds number Relative amplitude
Longitudinal wavy MCHS Moderate High Wide range (100–800) Less than 0.25
Transverse wavy MCHS Very low Moderate Wide range 100–800 High
CD-MCHS Moderate Moderate Moderate Re < 600 Low
Zigzag MCHS High Very high Low Re < 400 –

Ghaddar et al. [55,56] on HT and fluid flow in grooved channel
revealed the occurrence of resonant oscillation of the self-
sustained flow that led to enhance HT by a factor of two. Greiner
et al. [57] and Wirtz et al. [58] examined the influence of v-
grooved channel on HT and PD. It is found that both Nusselt num-
ber and PD are increased as compared to flat channel.
Several other studies [59–65] also revealed the role of grooves
in HTE depending on Reynolds number value. At low Reynolds
number, the periodic interruption on the surface prevented the
continuous growth of thermal boundary layer. However, above
the critical Reynolds number, the interruption on the surface pro-
moted flow oscillations that allowed forming dense vortices in the
grooved region with varying intensity depending on the groove
dimensions and its location along the channel. Tauscher [66] stud-
ied experimentally HT in heat exchanger channel with hemi-
cylindrical segment attached on the wall in staggered arrange-
ment. It employed holographic interferometry to visualize the
temperature fields. The interferogram showed that upstream sides
of the ribs encountered the highest HT and downstream faced the
lowest HT as illustrated in Fig. 17. Similar trend of HT is also
reported by Cernecky et al. [67] for profiled surface as depicted
in Fig. 18.
3.1. Cavities in MCHS
Xia et al. [68] studied numerically the fluid flow and HT in
microchannel with aligned fan-shaped reentrant cavities. A
detailed analysis is carried out to determined the flow mechanisms
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44 31

Fig. 17. (a) Interferogram of temperature distribution in plate heat exchanger channel with hemi-cylindrical rips for different Reynolds number (500, 1500, 2500, and 5000)
and (b) channel length dependent variation of local Nusselt number [66].

Fig. 18. (a) Holographic image of temperature distribution in grooved channel with profiled surface for various Reynolds number (462, 925, and 1619) and (b) local Nusselt
number as a function of channel length [67].

Fig. 19. (a) Streamlines along the mid-plain of the working fluid height and (b) flow velocity along the middle of the working fluid height [68].
32 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 20. Geometrical parameters of fan-shaped reentrant cavities [68].
inside the cavities that contributes in enhanced fluid mixing. Two
main mechanisms are identified that affect significantly towards
improved flow mixing: (i) the throttling effect that appears when
the flow enters to the cavity and, (ii) the jet effect that occurs when
the flow exit from the cavity as illustrated in Fig. 19a and b.
Besides, the structure of the arcuate cavity contributes to form
the swirls because of the presence of pressure gradient towards
the radial direction that produce further flow mixing. At high flow
rates, cooperative effects of all these mechanisms are involved for
enhancing the HT and FF. At low flow rates, it is observed that flow
is slipped over the cavity walls and thereby reduced the FF.
Consequently, it critically hindered the HT due to the reduction
in viscosity and conductivity. Thus, structural parameters analysis
is performed to choose the optimal condition that fulfilled the
requirements of HP with higher HT and lower PD. The abovemen-
tioned study tuned two parameters including the length ratio
(L1/L2) which specify the number of cavities along the channel
and the width ratio of arcuate region (W2/W1) as in Fig. 20. The
achieved optimal length ratio (L1/L2) is between 0.15 and 0.2
and the most favorable width ratio (W2/W1) ranged within
1.4–2.1. Chai et al. [69] studied numerically the hydrothermal
characteristics of MCHS with offset fan-shaped reentrant cavities
in sidewall. The flow mechanisms and thermal performance for
this design are found to be similar to the previous study except
the offset in the cavities.
Besides the fan-shaped reentrant cavities, Xia et al. [70]
performed numerical studies on HT and fluid flow in MCHS with
reentrant triangular cavities. They determined the influences of
Fig. 21. The schematic of three configurations of the MCs Ref. [71].
geometrical parameters on HT and FF. An optimization procedure
is adopted to find the optimal geometric parameters according to
the four variables that are selected to represent the distance and
geometry of reentrant triangular cavity. The presence of reentrant
triangular cavity is found to increase the CA by the vortices which
are generated in the vicinity of triangular zone. Subsequently, this
CA significantly improved the convective fluid mixing. Besides, the
periodic interruption and redevelopment of the thermal and
hydraulic boundary layers contributed in the augmentation of
HT. Optimized geometrical parameters together with the corre-
sponding Reynolds numbers achieved the maximum HT and min-
imum PD with overall efficiency more than 1.4.
For validating the previous numerical simulation results, Xia
et al. [71] conducted an experimental and numerical investigation
of on HTE of MCHS with periodic expansion-construction cross-
sections, considered three configurations such as fan-shaped reen-
trant cavities (FMCHS), triangular reentrant cavities (TMCHS) and
rectangular straight microchannel heat sink (RMCHS) as shown
in Fig. 21. The heat sink consisted of ten parallel MCs (constant
cross sections) of 0.2 mm deep and 0.1 mm wide. The effects of
entrance, conjugate HT, viscous heating are evaluated to determine
the temperature dependent properties. The numerical results
agreed well with the experimental one in terms of Nusselt number
and FF. Moreover, the average Nusselt number for expansion-
constriction cross-section with triangular shape is discerned to
be about 1.8 times higher than that of straight MCHS (rectangular
cross-section) as in Fig. 22a. The PD in periodic expansion con-
struction is lower for Re < 300, but it increased rapidly for Reynolds
number in the range of 300–750 (Fig. 22b).
All the previous numerical simulations used single MCHS with-
out considering the effect of inlet-outlet flow arrangement and
inlet-outlet headers regarding with flow distribution. Xie et al.
[72] considered the effects of three inlet and outlet flow arrange-
ments (I, C and Z-type), as well as header shapes (triangular, trape-
zoidal and rectangular). Additionally, the effects of three
configurations namely the conventional rectangular MCHS, MCHS
with triangular reentrant cavities and MCHS with offset fan-
shaped reentrant cavities are examined. The simulation revealed
that I-type of inlet-outlet flow arrangement produced best flow
distribution than other configurations. Likewise, the rectangular
header shape generated better flow uniformity than other shapes.
The overall evaluation for MCHS performance showed that MCHS
with cavities is thermally more efficient than simple MCHS with
superiority of triangular cavities over fan-shaped cavities. This
enhancement in HT is attributed to the throttling and jetting
effects associated with increased in PD.
Later, they studied the hydrothermal features of staggered cor-
rugated microchannel heat sink (SCMCHS) [73]. The proposed
design possessed a I-type flow arrangement with rectangular
header shape. The performance of SCMCHS is evaluated by com-
paring with rectangular microchannel heat sink (RMCHS). The PD
in the proposed design is found to be higher than RMCHS. This
enhancement is due to sudden-expansion of the flow area that
generated vortices in reentrant cavities. Moreover, these reentrant
cavities are contributed in HTE. Various techniques such as inter-
rupting the thermal boundary layer, enlarging the heat exchanging
area, increase flow mixing and chaotic advection are adopted HT
improvement. The thermal performance factor is increased up to
1.24 with a reduction in TR up to 18.99%.
Abouali and Baghernezhad [74] inspected the HT and fluid flow
in arc (A) and rectangular (R) types of grooved MCs. These grooved
are created on the floor and sidewalls of the channel. They made a
comprehensive evaluation of the HTE in these MCs and compared
with simple straight MC. Such grooved surface is found to have
remarkable effect on the HTE and more effective than flat surface
for removing the heat. Furthermore, the arc grooved MC (AGMC)
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44 33

Fig. 22. Comparison of the numerical predictions and experimental data in conventional rectangular MCHS (R), MCHS with triangular reentrant cavities (T) and MCHS with
fan shape reentrant cavities (F) for (a) average Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds Nu and (c) fappRe [71].

outperformed the rectangular one in terms of HT and FF. For
AGMC, the increase in heat removal is about 72% and FF is 42%.
Conversely, for RGMC, the increase inheat removal is 61% and FF
is 25%. Additionally, the grooved MCHS (GMHS) proved their supe-
riority over simple MCHS of minimum fin thickness. The results
revealed that coefficient of performance (COP) for rectangular
and arc types of GMCHS exceeded by 4.4% and 14%, respectively
than that of simple MCHS. Recent researches are mostly focused
on MCHS with grooves that are created on the side wall rather than
that on floor due to ease fabrication. Ansari et al. [75] studied
numerically the HT and fluid flow in MCHS with arched grooves
organized in staggered arrangements. They determined the opti-
mal groove shape for achieving lowest TR at minimum pump
power. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithm is used with four
design variables including groove pitch to channel height, groove
diameter to pitch, channel width to channel height and groove
depth to channel height. Pump power and TR are selected as objec-
tive functions. The GMCHS revealed much higher improvement in
the thermal performance over smooth one in terms of Nusselt
number and TR however at the expense of pumping power. Mean-
while, the observed reduction in the TR is ascribed to be linked
with the increase of pump power.
To understand the effect of other groove shapes, Kuppusamy
et al. [76] studied numerically the HT and fluid flow in trapezoidal
grooved microchannel heat sink (trapezoidal GMCHS) to determine
the impact of geometrical parameters such as width and pitch on
its HP. An enhancement in HT is achieved for minimum width is
shortened and maximum width is elongated to be closer to trian-
gular shape. This manipulation in geometry forced the flow to
deviate towards the grooved zone and led to increased flow mix-
ing. Besides, an increase in the pitch led to an enhancement of
the thermal performance. This enhancement is attributed to the
reduction in PD that originated from the slipping of flow in
grooves. They also examined [77] the effect of triangular GMCHS
on the HP of MCHS. Three geometrical parameters (angle, depth
and pitch) are considered. An enhancement in HT with the increa-
ser of both of depth and angle is evidenced. Further flow analysis
revealed that the increment in the angle and the depth led to the
enlargement of the groove zone which created larger vortices
and allowed improved the mixing. Nevertheless, the pitch size dis-
played insignificant effect on the flow pattern inside the grooves
but considerably affected the number of grooves and the occurence
of interruptions in the boundary layers.
Ahmed et al. [78] performed an overall evaluation on three
grooves geometries (triangular, trapezoidal and rectangular) to
identify the optimal geometrical parameters of depth, tip length,
and pitch. Besides, a new geometrical parameter called orientation
ratio (r/Lg) is used, which manipulated the grooves arrangement
from symmetrical (at ratio = 0) to asymmetrical arrangement (at
ratio > 1) as displayed in Fig. 23. They explored the impact of geo-
metrical parameters (depth, tip length, pitch and orientation ratio)
on the performance of MCHS. It is acknowledged that trapezoidal
GMCHS with specific topology can give best thermal performance
at lower Reynolds number (Re = 100). This observation is

Fig. 23. Geometrical parameters of the trapezoidal GMCHS. [78].

34 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
attributed to the occurrence of high flow recirculation inside the
groove at low velocity. Furthermore, thesymmetrical grooves
revealed better thermal performance than asymmetrical one due
to simultaneous flow expansion on both sides of the channel. This
expansion generated eddies rotating in reverse direction, caused
high mixing flow that carried more heat from heated walls. The
highest improvement of the Nusselt number with lowest improve-
ment in the FF is discerned to be 51.59% of 2.35%, respectively.
3.2. Ribs in MCHS
Ribs are considered as another effective method in flow disrup-
tion techniques due to their ability to interrupt and redevelop ther-
mal boundary layers and increased mixing through induced
vortices. However, these configurations are accompanied with
undesirable effect such as high pressure drop. Thus, the geometry
of ribs such as height, pitch, width and arrangement need to be
optimized for minimizing the PD with maximum HT. Chai et al.
[79] studied numerically the HT and fluid flow in MCHS with
fan-shaped ribs on sidewalls. They determined the proposed
design dependent HT properties, PD and entropy generation. The
impacts of geometrical parameters (width, height and spacing)
on the HP of MCHS for two types of aligned and offset types of ribs
arrangement are examined. The spacing and height of the ribs are
found to have notable effect on the HT. The width showed insignif-
icant effect on HT. These MC with aligned ribs arrangement of
lower height and larger spacing revealed better HT coefficient than
offset type. The fan-shaped ribs showed the ability for preventing
the continuous increase of substrate temperature along the flow
direction and kept the local Nusselt number at higher level. These
ribs interrupted and redeveloped the boundary layer as well as
induced flow recirculation that enhanced the flow mixing. Com-
pared to smooth MCHS, the average Nusselt number in MCHS with
aligned fan shaped ribs is increased by 6%–101%. Moreover, the TR
is reduced by 3%–40%. The MCHS with offset fan-shaped ribs dis-
played an increase in the Nusselt number by 4%–103% and reduc-
tion in TR by 2%–42% [79].
In another report, Chai et al. [80] presented the effect of above-
mentioned geometrical parameters on the PD and FF of MCHS. An
increase in rib width is observed to enhance the FF ratio (the ratio
of FF of proposed design to the FF of smooth channel). Conversely,
increasing ribs height and spacing led to significant enhancement
in the FF. For Reynolds number in the range of 187 to 715, the FF
of MCHS with aligned fan-shaped ribs revealed an increase by a
factor of 1.1–8.28 times more than smooth MCHS, while the FF
of MCHS with offset ribs is increased by a factor of 1.22–6.27 times
only. The HT and FF mediated entropy generation is extensively
investigated in the previous design [81]. Increase in the ribs height
in the offset arrangement of proposed design led to enhance the
thermal performance much higher than the aligned one. Further
decrease in the rib spacing first increased the overall performance
and then gradually deteriorated. It is asserted that an increase in
the height of ribs could reduce the entropy generation due to
HTE. Meanwhile, an increase in the rib height could increase the
FF and therefore increase the entropy generation. For lower Rey-
nolds number, the observed decrease in the entropy generation is
attributed to the dominance of HTE over the FF which in turn
improved the overall performance. For higher Reynolds number,
the observed increase in entropy generation is ascribed to the
increased FF that overdominated the HTE thereby reduced the
overall performance.
In their numerical study on the hydrothermal characteristics of
MCHS with offset ribs on sidewalls, Chai et al. [82] proposed vari-
ous shapes including rectangular, forward triangular (FT), back-
ward triangular (BT), isosceles triangular (IT), and semicircular
(SC). It is asserted that the existence of ribs on the sidewalls pro-
duced significant impacts on the flow structure. This created sec-
ondary flow and vortices as well as contributed to the boundary
layer interruption. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the occur-
rence of recirculation in the downstream of the ribs enhanced the
flow mixing. The Nusselt number and PD are increased proportion-
ally with Reynolds number for all types of ribs. The Nusselt number
is increased from 1.42 to 1.95 and FF in increased by a factor 1.93–
4.57 times more than the smooth MCHS. Accordingly, the overall
performance is increased by a factor of 1.02–1.48 times. For Rey-
nolds number less than 350, MCHS with FT offset ribs showed
highest performance and MCHS with rectangular offset ribs
revealed the lowest one. Conversely, for Reynolds number more
than 400, MCHS with SC ribs displayed highest performance while
the MCHS with BT ribs exhibited the lowest one.
3.3. Effect of ribs and grooves
The combination between ribs and grooves is another strategy
to enhance the HP of MCHS. This strategy provide many advan-
tages such as increase in the surface area of heat transfer, increase
in the flow mixing due to intensive vortices and an increment in
the static pressure within cavities or grooves for recovering a high
pressure drop in the ribs zone. Xia et al. [83] conducted a numer-
ical study on the hydrothermal characteristics of MCHS using
fan-shaped reentrant cavities by installing the internal semi-
circular ribs in the straight part between the cavities. The effect
of relative rib height (the ratio of rib height to hydraulic diameter)
on HP of MCHS are analyzed within laminar flow regime. The pres-
ence of ribs is found to significantly affect the flow mechanism. The
flow is accelerated in the ribs zone due to the convergence of cross-
section, which led to form a negative pressure in the cavity zone
and positive pressure at rib zone as depicted in Fig. 24. The conse-
quences of this mechanism leads to periodic interruption of ther-
mal and hydraulic boundary layers. Furthermore, the periodic
pressure variation caused vortices formation, flow separation and
reattachment. This increased the flow mixing and in turn enhanced
the thermal performance. The local Nusselt number is increased at
ribs zone due to strong flow disturbances and decreased besides
cavities upstream side because of the formation of a vortex. This
produced thicker thermal boundary layer. The results showed an
increase in average Nusselt number about 1.3–3 times higher than
the rectangular channel, where the FF is increased by a factor of 6.5
times. It is established that a moderate relative rib height of e/
Dh = 0.12 at Re = 592 achieved the optimum thermal enhancement
by a factor of 1.6 as in Fig. 25a.
Zhai and co-authors [84] examined three new shapes of ribs
(rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular) in addition to the geome-
try of fan reentrant cavity with circular ribs. They followed a new
criteria to evaluate the performances of MCHS. The first evaluation
concept is based on the relation between HT mechanism and the
angles between the streamlines and the isotherms as well as the
synergetic relation among velocity vector, velocity and tempera-
ture gradient. To evaluate the overall performance in the convec-
tive HT process, three parameters are considered for the synergy
evaluation including the angle between the velocity vector and
the temperature gradient (b), the angle between the velocity vector
and the velocity gradient (a) and a dimensionless factor called syn-
ergy number (Fc). The second evaluation concept is based on eval-
uation of irreversibility in HT process in MCHS, which is performed
by calculating the enhancement entropy generation number (Ns)
that represented the ratio of entropy generation rate in enhanced
MCHS to entropy generation rate in reference MCHS. The deterio-
ration of Ns to well below unity indicated the high performance
of enhanced MCHS. Thus, the new design could reduce the irre-
versibility. The performance is evaluated using three indicators
including thermal efficiency factor (g), synergy number and
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44 35

Fig. 24. (a) Magnitude of flow velocity and (b) streamlines distribution along the central plain (z = 0.25 mm) between fan-shaped reentrant cavities MCHS (e/Dh = 0.1553) and
rectangular MCHS at Re = 199.5 [83].

Fig. 25. (a) Variation of thermal enhancement factor with Reynolds number and (b) geometrical parameters of fan-shaped reentrant cavities MCHS [83].

entropy generation number (Fc) to the existence of two thermal
performance patterns. For Re < 300, the MCHS with fan-shaped
reentrant cavities and trapezoidal ribs revealed best performance.
Conversely, the MCHS with fan-shaped reentrant cavities and cir-
cular ribs showed a best performance when Re > 300 as displayed
in Fig. 26a.
Following the previous scheme, Zhai et al. [85] examined
numerically the thermal performance of six new configurations
of ribs and grooves installed on the side-walls along the
channel. These configurations include triangular-cavities with
circular-rib (Tri.C-C.R), triangular-cavities with triangular-rib (Tri.
C-Tri.R), triangular-cavities with trapezoidal-ribs (Tri.C–Tra.R),
trapezoidal-cavities with circular-rib (Tra.C-C.R),trapezoidal-cav
ities with triangular-rib (Tra.C-Tri.R) and trapezoidal-cavities with
trapezoid-rib (Tra.C-Tra.R) as illustrated in Fig. 27. Each of the rel-
ative cavity height and relative rib height are changed to find the
optimum design. The overall performance is enhanced compared
to configurations of previous study [83]. Furthermore, it showed
two trends according to Reynolds number. For 100 < Re < 300, the
triangular cavity with trapezoidal ribs (Tri.C–Tra.R) revealed the
best performance. For 300 < Re < 600, the triangular cavities and
triangular ribs (Tri.C–Tri.R) showed the best performance as illus-
trated in Fig. 28. The entropy generation and exergy are also anal-
ysed to evaluate the irreversibility of the system. It is
demonstrated that with increasing Reynolds number, the value
of entropy generation caused by heat transfer irreversibility is
decreased, while the entropy generation caused by flow friction
increased. Simultaneously, it is found that the effect of relative
rib height on entropy generation rate and transport efficient of
thermal energy is more sensitive than relative cavity height. It is
further emphasized that with decreasing net temperature gradient
of fluid, the irreversibility is reduced and the utilization of thermal
energy is enhances. They established a new correlations for Nusselt
number and friction factor of the micro heat sink (Tri.C–Tri.R) that
can predict the values with an accuracy of ±10%.
In another numerical study, Xie et al. [86] evaluated the
hydrothermal characteristics of MCHS with grooves and obstacles
using six different configurations as illustrated in Fig. 29. It is
shown that the geometric arrangement of grooves and obstacles
have significant influence on the HP of MC. The highest HTE
(26.19) is achieved for case 4 (Fig. 28d) due to its geometric
arrangement like De Laval nozzle where the flow is accelerated
in the upstream half of the obstacle and then decelerated in the
cavity zone which triggered vortices, flow recirculation and separa-
tion. Besides, the pressure penalty ratio reached the highest value
of 110.1. To evaluate the overall performance, a comparison among
36 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44

Fig. 26. Reynolds number dependent variation of (a) thermal efficiency g, (b) entropy generation number Ns, (c) synergy number Fc for four types of MCHS; fan-shaped
reentrant cavities with circular ribs (F-C), fan-shaped reentrant cavities with trapezoidal ribs (F-Trp), fan-shaped reentrant cavities with rectangular ribs (F-R) and fan-shaped
reentrant cavities with triangular ribs (F-Tri) [84].

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

Fig. 27. Schematic diagram of cavities and ribs arrangement [85] (a) Tri.C-C.R, (b)
Tri.C-Tri.R, (c) Tri.C–Tra.R, (d) Tra.C-C.R, (e) Tra.C- Tri.R and (f) Tra.C-Tra.R.

all configurations is carried out by considering both HTE and PD

penalty. It is concluded that case 1 (Fig. 28a) produced the best
energy saving due to the lowest pressure penalty.
Wang et al. [87] investigated experimentally and numerically
HT and fluid flow in new design of MCHS with ribs and grooves
Fig. 28. Reynolds number dependent variation of overall performance for cavity-rib
which consisted of two parts. The upper part contained the ribs arrangement MCHS [85].
and grooves whereas the lower part is composed of rectangular
straight channels. The ribs and grooves are made of SU-8 and Si, ribs in periodic arrangement with grooves is utilized to interrupt
respectively. It is demonstrated that the proposed design can the thermal boundary layer and reduce the flow area. This in turn
enhance the HT compared with smooth MCHS. The existence of forced the flow to create a large recirculation behind the ribs and in
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 29. Streamlines and temperature contour at Re = 500 (a) groove on one surface, (b) obstacle on one surface and groove on opposite surface, (c) obstacle on one surface, (d)
obstacles are arranged at opposite surface, (e) grooves and obstacles are staggered on both surfaces, and (f) grooves and obstacles are aligned on both surfaces. [86].
Fig. 30. The functionality of offset-fin strips which work to split the flow and
deviate its direction to spread over the entire region [89].
the grooves. These recirculation flow significantly enhanced the
flow mixing between cold water in the central core zone and hot
water at the walls. Thus, the study focused on the relation between
the ribs height and thermal performance of the MCHS. The Nusselt
number and FF is increased with increasing relative rib height. For
the relative rib height of 0.85, the Nusselt number is increased up
to 1.55 times than that of smooth MCHS, whereas the FF is
increased up to 4.09–7.04 times.
Li et al. [88] adopted a new design where the rectangular ribs
are arranged in the central portion of channel and a triangular cav-
ities are on the side-walls (TC–RR). The study analyzed numerically
the effect of relative rib width and relative cavity width on the per-
formance of flow and HT. The new design is demonstrated to
acquire a significant enhancement in HT. Such enhancement is
majorly attributed to the several features of the proposed design.
These features included increasing HT area, jetting and throttling,
interruption and redevelopment to the hydraulic thermal bound-
ary layer. Furthermore, the combination of ribs and grooves
induced better fluid mixing and formed CA. The best achieved ther-
mal enhancement factor is 1.619 at relative rib width of 0.3, rela-
tive cavity width of 2.24 and Reynolds number of 500.
3.4. Offset strip fins
Offset strip fin is another type of FD techniques which are used
in MCHS in order to enhance HT. The concept of functional perfor-
mance of offset-fin strip as illustrated in Fig. 30, where the flow
moved in short passages and then encountered the offsetting fins
37
which split the flow streams and deviated their direction to move
around the fins [89]. This mechanism ensured the existence of flow
within a developing flow region due to flow interruption. Addition-
ally, this technique forced the flow streams to mix with each other
and dissipate more heat from the heated walls. Kishimoto and
Sasaki [90] first proposed the use of offset-strip fin instead of con-
tinuous wall fin to enhance HT. They studied numerically the HT in
microchannel with diamond-shaped interrupted cooling fin struc-
ture of staggered arrangement. The proposed design is found to
reduce the substrate temperature by 25% less than traditional
straight MC. Kandlikar and Upadhye [91] asserted the capability
of this design to dissipate heat fluxes up 3 MW/m2 with PD of
35 kPa using the split flow arrangement. Steinke and Kandlikar
[89] also examined experimentally the heat HT and fluid flow in
silicon MCHS with offset strip fins. Four designs are used with dif-
ferent geometrical parameters of flow passage width and fin thick-
ness. The results showed a significant reduction in TR of the
proposed design with a value of 0.001 °C m2/W compared with
TR of traditional MCHS of 0.1 °C m2/W. Besides, the COP (coeffi-
cient of performance) for proposed design (290) demonstrated a
great superiority over the traditional MCHS (11).
Colgan et al. [92] investigated experimentally the hydrothermal
characteristics of silicon MCHS with offset strip fins in staggered
arrangement which exposed to high power density greater than
300 W/cm2. The results showed that performance of the proposed
design with fin pitch of 75 lm or 100 lm is superior to traditional
straight MCHS having PD less than 35 kPa. Hong and Cheng [93]
studied numerically the HP of offset-strip fin MCHS. The effects
of geometric parameters (the ratio of fin interval to fin length
and fin number) are analyzed to identify the optimal dimensions
that satisfy the highest thermal performance in lowest PD. The
maximum substrate temperature is maintained at 332 K by chang-
ing the flow rate via geometrical parameters manipulation. It is
shown that by increasing the number of fins to a certain value
one can increase the frequent interruptions of the boundary layer
in addition to the increase in flow disturbance which in result
enhances HT as illustrated in Fig. 31. However, an additional
increase in fins number caused an enhancement in PD due to
increased flow resistance. The optimal value that fulfills the mini-
mal PD is achieved when the fin length is equal to fin interval.
3.5. Interrupted-wall channel
It is established that the HT coefficient in the entrance region of
the channel is significantly larger than the downstream locations.
This is because the entrance region is distinguished by thin ther-
38 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 31. The distribution of (a) velocity, (b) vorticity and (c) temperature at the
midplain in MCHS with offset strip fins [93].
mal boundary layers which continue to develop towards the down-
stream direction causing a deterioration in HT. Thus, the entrance
region’s features inspired the researchers and designers to take its
advantage for enhancing the HT in thermal applications. Sparrow
Fig. 32. (a) The geometry of interrupted MCHS (b) local Nusselt number versus non-dimensional flow length for rectangular MCHS and interrupted MCHS (c) pressure
distribution along flow direction for rectangular MCHS and interrupted MCHS Ref. [96].
et al. [94] studied numerically the HT and fluid flow in the
interrupted-wall channels for the heat exchanger applications.
The study aimed to explore the extent of HTE in the interrupted-
wall channels compared with that of parallel channel. The results
showed a considerably higher HT rates predominated in the
interrupted-wall channel for a wide range of Reynolds number.
This enhancement is remarkably observed in relatively short chan-
nels for high Reynolds number. For micro-cooling applications,
many researchers used this feature to enhance HT in MCHS.
Xu et al. [95] studied experimentally the hydrothermal charac-
teristics of silicon MCHS which consisted of ten parallel triangular
microchannels separated by five transverse trapezoidal microchan-
nels to form five discrete zones. The effects of periodic interruption
of flow on HTE are determined. The results revealed that the rede-
velopment of thermal boundary layer at the onset of each zone sig-
nificantly improved HT. This proposed MCHS is able to reduce the
temperature by 14 °C as compared to conventional one. Mean-
while, the PD encountered a considerable reduction due to short-
ening of the effective flow length.
In another study Xu et al. [96] conducted a numerical simula-
tion on the previous geometry as shown in Fig. 32a. The study
aimed to analyze the factors influencing the flow and heat transfer
in interrupted and conventional MCHS. The effect of interruption
technique in MCHS has a similar effect of entrance region regard-
ing to the local Nusselt number behaviour. Fig. 32b clearly shows
a periodic rise in local Nusselt number at the beginning of each
zone which attributed to the redeveloping in thermal boundary
layer. In conventional MCHS, the continuous growth in thermal
boundary layer leads to continuous deterioration in local Nusselt
number along flow direction. In regard to PD, the results indicated
the existence of two effects that influence on the PD across the
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44 39

Fig. 33. Streamlines and velocity distribution for (a) interrupted microchannel with rib (b) interrupted microchannel without rib (c) straight channel [97].

interrupted channel. First, the pressure recovery that occured
when the flow exit from the main stream to the transverse chan-
nel. Second, the increment in head loss when the flow entered
the next zone. It is demonstrated that the first effect suppressed
the second one which indicated that overall PD of the proposed
design is equal or lower than the conventional channel as dis-
played in Fig. 31.c. The results also referred to the slower redevel-
opment of the thermal boundary layer than that of hydrodynamic
boundary layer.
Chai et al. [97] studied the HT and fluid flow in interrupted
MCHS having rectangular ribs with transverse microchambers.
Experiment is performed to validate the numerical analysis for
specific dimensions. It covered a broad array of parameters such
as rib width, rib length, the space between two adjoining trans-
verse microchambers and the distance from the parallel
microchannels to the rib row. The results revealed that the inter-
rupted MCHS with ribs is more suitable in operating condition of
Reynolds number less than 600, where the HTE is dominant over
friction losses. For Reynolds number higher than 600, the results
showed that interrupted MCHS without ribs possessed higher per-
formance than the new design. This observation of HTE is attribu-
ted majorly to three main effects such as flow separation, vortices,
recirculation and boundary layer separation. These effects formed
within the zones of upstream and downstream to the rib as pre-
sented in Fig. 33a.
Lee et al. [98] proposed a new design of interrupted-wall chan-
nel in the form of oblique cuts which are made along the channels
wall to create smaller branching secondary channels. Part of flow is

Fig. 34. Schematic of a louvered-fin array [100].

40 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Fig. 35. MCHS with oblique fins [98].
Fig. 36. Comparison of PD in MCHS having oblique fin with conventional MC [98].
passed through secondary channels to the adjoining main channel
for promoting the flow mixing as shown in Fig. 35. In order to pro-
vide a good balance between heat transfer and pressure drop, the
proposed design of interrupted channel followed the recommenda-
tion of Suga and Aoki [99] for louvered-fin heat exchangers that the
ratio of fin pitch in the spanwise direction to the fin length must be
1.5 times the tangent of the oblique angle (Fig. 34). So, the angle of
oblique channel is selected to be 27° which is within the range of
louvered angles of 20°–40° as in shown Fig. 35. The results showed
that the combination between entrance effect and secondary flow
effect has led to considerable improvement in thermal perfor-
mance. Furthermore, the proposed design could reduce the TR
about 19% lower than regular straight channel. Meanwhile, the
local Nusselt numbers along the channel is higher almost by 80%
from that of conventional channel. The most significant feature
in the proposed design is the negligible pressure penalty because
the pressure loss due to flow injection from oblique channel to
adjacent channel is recovered with a branched flow from main
channel as illustrated in Fig. 36.
Later, Lee et al. [101] validated experimentally the previous pro-
posed design using copper MCHS. The experimental results have
agreed with the previous numerical study where the average
Nusselt number is increased about 80% (from 8.6 to 15.8) over
the conventional MCHS. Meanwhile, the TR has decreased about
18%. It is concluded that PD in oblique finned MC is approximately
the same as conventional channel for Reynolds number less than
500. A slight increase in PD is occurred in the operating conditions
for Reynolds number more than 500 due to the strong momentum
flow in secondary channel. In another experimental study, Lee et al.
[102] employed a silicon-based MCHS with a smaller channel
dimension of (12.7 mm  0.115 mm  0.387 mm). Similar results
are achieved on the HTE performance with lower pressure penalty.
Lee et al. [103] conducted an experiment to examine the scaling
effects on the thermal performance of oblique finned MC. For chan-
nel width of 500 lm, the HT is achieved with a negligible PD pen-
alty for Reynolds number up to 400. Further increase in Reynolds
number caused additional PD penalty however still lower than
HTE. For channel width of 300 lm, the shortcoming in fabrication
process led to form a burr/bend at the fin edge which caused in
higher PD penalty.
Recently, Lee et al. [1] extensively studied the HP of silicon
MCHS with oblique fins. The effect of two critical geometrical
parameter such as the angle of oblique channel (15, 27, and 45°),
oblique fin pitch (0.4, 80, 1.5) with two values of hydraulic diame-
ter (0.1, 0.2) mm on the HP of such MC are examined. The smaller
oblique angle is found to produce larger secondary flow with min-
imum flow resistance. However, the smaller pitch value created
higher thermal boundary layer re-development in addition to more
secondary flow generation which means further HTE. Kuppusamy
et al. [104] proposed a new design exploiting the concept of sec-
ondary flow through slanted passages that formed in the channel
wall between adjacent channels in alternating orientation. These
slanted channels enhanced HT through two mechanisms including
interruption and redeveloping to thermal boundary layer and
induced flow mixing between channels. The most significant fea-
ture of this configuration is the minor PD which attained as much
as 6%, while the overall thermal performance factor attained 146%
and TR reduced to 76.8% compared with straight channel. Table 2
enlists a summary of relevant literature that used art of the tech-
nique to evaluate the influence of various channel zone parameters
on the HP of MCHS.
4. Conclusion
Present article comprehensively overviews several leading liter-
atures concerning the effects of geometrical parameters related to
the channel zone on the HT performance of MCHS. These parame-
ters constitute two significant heat enhancement techniques
including CCs and FDs. With regards to CC technique, the superior
HT performance of wavy channel with sinusoidal shape in accept-
able levels of PD is emphasized. Although HT is superior in the zig-
zag channel but it is associated with high PD. Meanwhile, the
convergent-divergent channel revealed moderate HTE at low Rey-
nolds number. With regards to FDs technique, it is found that chan-
nel with re-entrant cavities produce fair HTE in the range of
moderate to high Reynolds number. At low Reynolds number, flow
is slipping over the cavity walls reduces the FF, but seriously hinder
HT due to lowering viscosity and conduction level. The presence of
grooves shows considerable enhancement in HT due to their ability
to increase mixing of flow through induced flow recirculation. It is
asserted that the HP of MCHS can be further enhanced with opti-
mization process to the geometry of the groove.
With regards to ribs configuration, it is found that ribs have the
ability to interrupt thermal boundary layer and creating of sec-
ondary flow and vortices which significantly enhance HT. However,
this enhancement is accompanied with high FF. Thus, there is a
need to choose the appropriate shape and dimensions of ribs with
specific range of flow velocities. The hybrid techniques between
Table 2
A summary of relevant literature on the effect of channel zone parameters on the HP of MCHS.

Ref. Type of study HTE factor PD

Wavy-sinusoidal MCHS [5] Numerical 1.71–2.95 1.38–2
Wavy-sinusoidal MCHS [43] Experimental 211% 76%
Wavy MCHS [44] Numerical Re = 66.67, 40.5% Re = 66.67, 11.2%
Re = 166.7, 248.8% Re = 166.7, 34.8%
Wavy-sinusoidal MCHS [45] Numerical Superiority of wavy MCHS over straight MCHS for relative Pressure drop of wavy MCHS is higher than straight MCHS
amplitude range between 0.0625 and 0.21875
Wavy-transversal MCHS [46,47] Numerical Transverse wavy MCHS produced the lowest PD than longitudinal wavy
MCHS and straight MCHS
Wavy MCHS [48] Numerical Pr = 137, 85% Pr = 137, 39%
Pr = 1038, 53% Pr = 137, 2%
Convergent-divergent MCHS [49] Numerical Re P 50, 55% PD is higher than straight MCHS
Convergent-divergent MCHS [2] Numerical 20% PD is higher than straight MCHS
Convergent-divergent MCHS [50] Numerical 50% PD is higher than straight MCHS

I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
Zigzag, wavy and step MCHS [51] Numerical Zigzag MCHS is superior over step and wavy MCHS PD in zigzag MCHS is higher than step and wavy MCHS
Zigzag MCHS [39] Numerical (i) HT is increased with decreasing value of Lz/d (i) PD is increased with decreasing value of Lz/d
(ii) HT is increased with decreasing value of Rc/d (ii) PD is increased with decreasing value of Rc/d
(iii) HT is increased with increasing value of bend angle (iii) PD is increased with increasing value of bend angle
Zigzag MCHS [52] Numerical The flow transition from steady to unsteady flow occurs at a relatively
low Reynolds number (Rec = 215)
Zigzag MCHS[53] Numerical Zigzag channels provide significant heat transfer intensification PD in zigzag MCHS is larger than sinusoidal MCHS
with much higher surface area utilisation (ea = 0.91–0.99) than
sinusoidal channels (ea = 0.81–0.89)
MCHS with aligned fan-shaped reentrant cavities [68] Numerical Optimum HT enhancement with length ratio L1/L2 between 0.15 Optimum PD with length ratio L1/L2 between 0.15 and 0.2 and width
and 0.2 and width ratio between 1.4 and 2.1 ratio between 1.4 and 2.1
MCHS with offset fan-shaped reentrant cavities [69] Numerical The HTE is highly dependent on Reynolds number value
MCHS with reentrant triangular cavities [70] Numerical Overall efficiency more than 1.4 PD is higher than straight MCHS
(i) Fan-shaped reentrant cavities (F MCHS) Experimental TMCHS is the best with heat enhancement about 1.8 time than PD is higher than straight MCHS
(ii) Triangular reentrant cavities (TMCHS) RMCHS
(iii) Rectangular straight microchannel heat sink
(RMCHS [71]
(i) MCHS with triangular reentrant cavities Numerical Triangular cavities configuration is the best compared with other PD is higher than straight MCHS
(ii) MCHS with offset fan-shaped reentrant cavities configurations
(iii) Rectangular straight MCHS [72]
Staggered corrugated microchannel heat sink (CMCHS) Numerical and 1.24 times more than straight MCHS PD is higher than straight MCHS
[73] Experimental
(i) Arc GMCHS Numerical (i) Arc GMCHS 72% (i) Arc GMCHS 42%
(ii) Rectangular GMCHS [74] (ii) Rectangular GMCHS 61% (ii) Rectangular GMCHS 25%
MCHS with arched grooves in staggered arrangements Numerical Grooved micro-channel exhibited a lower thermal resistance over PD is higher than straight MCHS
[75] a smooth micro-channel but at the expense of pumping power
Trapezoidal GMCHS [76] Numerical 91.42% PD is much lower than HT
Triangular GMCHS [77] Numerical 1.78 times higher than straight MCHS PD in triangular GMCHS is higher than straight MCHS
(i) Triangular GMCHS Numerical 51.59% more than straight MCHS 2.35% more than straight MCHS
(ii) Trapezoidal GMCHS
(iii) Rectangular GMCHS [78]
(i) Aligned fan-shaped ribs Numerical 1–6%–101% (i) 1.1–8.28 times
(ii) Offset fan-shaped ribs [79], [80] 4–103% (ii) 1.22–6.27 times
MCHS with offset ribs: Numerical (i) Re < 350 forward triangular offset ribs showed a highest (1.93–4.57) times more 1.93–4.57 times higher higher than straight
(i) Rectangular performance MCHS
(ii) Forward triangular (ii) Re > 400 semicircular ribs showed highest performance
(iii) Backward triangular (iii) Increase in Nusselt number (1.42)–(1.95)
(iv) Isosceles Triangular
(v) Semicircular [82]
MCHS with Fan-shaped reentrant cavities and internal Numerical 1.3–3 times more than straight MCHS 6.5 times more than straight MCHS
ribs circular ribs F-C [83]

(continued on next page)

41
 42
Table 2 (continued)

Ref. Type of study HTE factor PD

MCHS with fan-shaped reentrant cavities and: Numerical (i) Re < 300, PD is higher than straight MCHS
(i) Rectangular ribs F-R (ii) F-Trp is the best.
(ii) Trapezoidal ribs F-Trp (iii) Re > 300,
(iii) Triangular ribs F-Tri [84] F-C is the best
MCHS with Grooves and obstacles of six cases [86] Numerical Case 4–26.19 Case 4–110.1
Ribs and grooves [87] Numerical 1.55 times 4.09–7.04
MCHS with triangular cavities and rectangular ribs Numerical Overall thermal enhancement 1.619 PD is higher than straight MCHS
(TC–RR) [88]
MCHS with offset strip fins [91] Numerical Dissipates heat fluxes up 3 MW/m2 35 kPa
MCHS with offset strip fins [89] Numerical C.O.P = 290
MCHS with offset strip fins [92] Experimental Dissipates heat fluxes up 300 W/cm2 35 kPa
MCHS with offset strip fins [93] Numerical The best thermal performance at lower PD is achieved when the
ratio of the fin interval to the fin length is equal to one
Interrupted wall channel MCHS [95] Experimental and HT is higher than straight MCHS PD is the same as in straight MCHS

I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
numerical
Interrupted wall channel MCHS [96] Numerical HT is higher than straight MCHS PD is the same as in straight MCHS
Interrupted MCHS with rectangular ribs in transverse Experimental and HTE is dominant over friction losses for Re < 600 PD is higher than straight MCHS
microchambers [97] numerical
MCHS with oblique fins [98] Numerical 80% Negligible pressure penalty
MCHS with oblique fins [101] Experimental and 80% Negligible pressure penalty
numerical
MCHS with oblique fins [102] Numerical Nusselt number increased by 55% more than conventional straight Negligible PD compared with conventional straight MCHS
MCHS
MCHS with oblique fins [103] Experimental Nusselt number increased by 103% more than conventional Small PD
straight MCHS
MCHS with oblique fins [1] Experimental 47% at Re = 680 Negligible PD
Optimal angle 27°
MCHS with slanted channels in alternating orientation Numerical 146% 6%
[104]
 I.A. Ghani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 21–44
ribs and either grooves or cavities have additional advantages than
single technique in isolation. These features are manifested in
increasing the HT area, induction of better fluid mixing and forma-
tion CA. The offset-strip fins configuration is another FD technique
which forces the flow streams to mix with each other and dissipate
more heat from the heated walls. Furthermore, the performance of
this configuration is related to the optimal geometrical parameters
such as fin length, fin number and fin interval. The most important
characteristic within flow disturbance techniques is found in
interrupted-wall channel which manifested low PD. It is estab-
lished to be the most desirable feature in MCHS applications due
to its role in reducing the pump power and liquid leakage risk.
Besides, the secondary flow in slanted channels in the wall-fin
notably contributes in increasing the flow mixing and continuous
interruption to the thermal boundary layer and therefore enhances
HT. So, it can be concluded that MCHS with oblique fins (or slanted
channels) has achieved best performance with high heat transfer
rate at negligible pressure drop.
Although many research have focused on studying the effects of
geometrical parameters in both above techniques, but there is a
need to further studies focusing on:
1. More studies are needed to adopt a combination between wavy
MCHS and FD techniques for more thermal performance.
2. The combination between grooves and ribs in central channel
has achieved a higher performance than using individual tech-
nique of ribs or grooves. An optimization of geometrical param-
eters for grooves and ribs with different shapes is needed to
acquire more reduction in PD associated with higher rate of
heat transfer.
This all-inclusive and edifying review article is expected to
serve as taxonomy for navigating and understanding the state of
the art developments towards improvement of HP in MCHS.
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