Abstract
With the increasing computational demands, microprocessors have become more powerful, generating high and spatially non-uniform heat fluxes, thus creating significant thermal management challenges. Jet impingement is a promising solution for tackling high heat loads; however, its hydrothermal performance is often limited by the radial jet-to-jet interaction. To mitigate these interactions, an extensive numerical analysis was conducted by introducing separators between the adjacent jets. In this regard, two different separator configurations, namely, rectilinear and curvilinear, were systematically analyzed by varying their length, width, and radius. The system performance was evaluated under a heat flux of 50 W/cm2 and velocities ranging from 0.5 to 2 m/s. The results illustrated that introducing separators between the jet arrays enhanced the heat transfer by 17.3%. The curvilinear separator exhibited 3.9% lower pumping power than the traditional jet impingement system due to smoother flow redirection and reduced jet interaction losses. Furthermore, vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy analyses revealed that separator configuration systems promote controlled flow redistribution and improved hotspot mitigation. The findings of this investigation provide a deeper understanding of active flow strategies for high heat flux electronic cooling applications.