Electromagnetic Regulation of Electrolyte Solution Heat Convection in Microchannels

Micromachines (Basel). 2018 May 28;9(6):262. doi: 10.3390/mi9060262.

Abstract

With the rapid development of microelectronics and micro-electromechanical system technology, the electronic components have become smaller and the performance has become higher. Under this condition, however, their energy consumption and heat production have also increased continuously, which poses a great challenge to heat dissipation. In this paper, electromagnetic driving technology is applied to drive the electrolyte solution flow within a microchannel to realize efficient heat convection with microchannel walls. By changing the magnitude and direction of electric⁻magnetic field, the regulation of heat convection performance is studied. The results show that the Nu number of microchannel increases as the Ha number and magnetic direction angle increases, while it decreases as the potential difference increases. According to the average index of the four factors, it was determined that the electrolyte solution had the best heat convection performance with Ha = 0.05, Vb = 0.00006, Pe = 90, and α = 90°. After that, sensitivity analysis of the Ha number, potential difference and magnetic direction angle was used to regulate the heat convection performance. This paper may provide some theoretical support for the design of microelectronics and micro-electromechanical systems.

Keywords: convection heat convection; electrolyte solution; electromagnetic regulation; microchannel.