Evaluation of water-cooled heat sink with complex designs of groove for application in fusion energy management

Highlights: • Performance of a water-cooled heat sink is investigated with complex grooves. • Water is used as coolant for Reynolds number less than 1000. • Augmentations up to 2.25 and 8.54 times are recorded for h and Δp. • Performance index up to 2.22 is found for a specific design of complex grooves. -- Abstract: Thermal–hydraulic transport characteristics of different complex grooves are examined for use in a water-cooled heat sink applicable in the fusion energy management. Realistic, 11 manufacturable models are considered for intensification of the heat transfer at moderate pressure drop. In order to compare these models, a standard and reference model is required. Hence, a real heat sink with the straight grooves is tested experimentally to create the reference model and validate the numerical approach. In general, the complex grooves show higher values of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop as compared with the reference model (i.e. straight groove) for a given Reynolds number. The augmentations are up to 2.25 and 8.54 times for the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop, respectively. Therefore, a geometrical comparison criterion is used to appraise the overall hydrothermal performance of different models. The performance index up to 2.22 is found, and it is more obvious at higher Reynolds numbers. This proves that the studied complex grooves can improve the hydrothermal performance of water-cooled heat sink.