Qualitative analysis of coupling effect of fluid velocity distribution in microchannels on the performance of the LED water cooling system

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to ensure adequate thermal management to remove and dissipate the heat produced by a light-emitting diode (LED) and to guarantee reliable and safe operation. Design/methodology/approach A three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to analyze the distribution of fluid velocities among microchannels at four different aspect ratios. Findings The results showed that at the same inlet flow rate, the larger the aspect ratio of the microchannels, the better the uniformity of the internal fluid velocity and thus better the heat dissipation performance on the surface of the high-power LED chip. In addition, the thermal performance of a high-power LED water cooling system with four different aspect ratios’ microchannel structures is further studied experimentally. Specifically, the coupling effect between the fluid velocity distribution in the microchannels and the heat dissipation performance of a high-power LED water cooling system is qualitatively analyzed and compared with the simulation results of the fluid velocity distribution. The results fully demonstrated that a larger aspect ratio of the microchannels results in better heat dissipation performance on the surface of the high-power LED chip. Originality/value Optimizing the structural parameters to facilitate a relatively uniform velocity distribution to improve the water cooling system performance may be a key factor to be considered.