Performance comparison of rectangular and air-foil shapes offset strip flow paths micro-heat exchangers

This study designed and tested eight micro-heat exchangers with rectangle-, air-foil-, and shuttle-type strips for use in the liquid cooling system. The effects of strip length, strip type, and strip arrangement were considered for heat transfer performance comparison. The test results show that the heat exchangers with shorter strip length and narrower strip space provide better heat transfer performance. The short air-foil strips heat exchanger with 1.0 mm strip length performed the lowest thermal resistance among all types of heat exchangers. Because of its narrow flow paths, the performance of the overlapped shuttle strip heat exchanger is better than that of the offset shuttle, long air-foil, and rectangle strip heat exchangers. However, the space between strips is limited by the fabrication techniques and is difficult to be made narrower by the method of chemical etching.