Thermal–hydraulic characteristics of liquid-cooled heat sinks with TPMS structures in serpentine and parallel channels

This paper examines heat sinks having TPMS structures and regular fins. Two channel configurations are experimented; serpentine channel and parallel direct channel. The two flow and thermal-hydraulic properties within the heat sinks are analyzed through the finite volume method (FVM). The outcomes demonstrate that flows change direction in a short period due to TPMS structures. This enhances mixing and flow distribution of fluids. At an inlet velocity of 1.2 m/s, compared with conventional fin-based heat sinks, the Gyroid serpentine-channel heat sink exhibits a 50.57% higher heat transfer factor, while the Primitive serpentine-channel heat sink achieves an even greater enhancement of 72.98%, and within the inlet velocity range of 1.2–3.0 m/s, this enhancement ratio gradually decreases as the flow velocity increases. For parallel direct channels, the Gyroid configuration provides a 61.25% improvement in heat transfer factor over the conventional fin-based design, whereas the Primitive structure yields a 39.23% enhancement. In contrast to the serpentine case, these enhancement ratios increase with rising inlet velocity over the 1.2–3.0 m/s range. The serpentine channels have improved heat dissipation over the other type of channels. In cases of comparing both the heat transfer and hydraulic loss, the Gyroid heat sinks with parallel direct channels achieve a well-balanced performance and high overall efficiency. Under the benchmark of a straight-channel heat sink filled with fin structures, its PEC value is 1.22, indicating the best overall performance. These findings provide figures and requirements in creating TPMS designs and application in high-performance liquid cooling systems.