Response surface methodology-based novel lattice heat sink optimization for electrohydrodynamic (EHD) spray cooling

In recent years, the size of electronic equipment has become smaller, while the increased processing capacity has led to progressive elevation in the heat flux. As a result of this, the performance of this equipment decreases, and their service lives decrease. Although traditional cooling methods are insufficient to remove the surface heat, new cooling techniques, for example, electrohydrodynamic spray (EHD-spray) cooling, show promise in guaranteeing the operation of these systems under the intended conditions. EHD-spray, also known as electrospray, is an atomization method that provides equal and homogeneous droplets. Although EHD has been used in many studies in the literature, its use in heat transfer has only recently become an important research area. Studies on EHD-spray, which has important advantages such as requiring a very small amount of fluid and low energy, are limited, and there are almost no studies using finned heat sinks. In the study carried out, unique design heat sinks produced by the selective laser melting (SLM) method were optimized with the respond surface method (RSM) Box-Behnken design (BBD) management, that is one of the most effective design methods. In the study where heat sink surface area (HSSA), fluid composition ratio (FCR), and flow rate (FR) were used as variable parameters, the highest heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was found for 100% distilled water at a 17 mL/h flow rate, and the heat sink had the lowest surface area. The results show that EHD-spray is promising for cooling high-heat-flux systems.