Review on Heat and Fluid Flow in Micro Pin Fin Heat Sinks under Single-phase and Two-phase Flow Conditions

This article reviews recent studies on the hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics of micro pin fin heat sink (MPFHS). In the studies reviewed in this article, liquid coolants such as water, HFE-7000, HFE-7200, R-123 were tested under both single-phase and two-phase flow conditions. Analytical, computational and experimental research studies were covered with a focus on configurations with traditional arrangements of micro pin fins (MPF) as well as original designs such as oblique finned MPFs, variable density MPF, vortex generators and herringbone structures. Single-phase flow results highlighted pressure drop penalty with achieved heat transfer enhancement. Many studies revealed the inability of conventional correlations to predict the hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics and proposed new correlations for different operating conditions and geometrical specifications. Regarding the studies on two-phase flows the number of performed studies is less than the ones in single-phase flow regime although the diversity of utilized coolants is more. Under flow boiling conditions, the focus was on determining flow patterns among MPFs for different arrangements and under different operating conditions. Unlike the studies on single-phase flows, the data could be relatively well predicted using the earlier suggested model by Lockhart and Martinelli with appropriate coefficients for different arrangements of MPFs.