INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013

Published online 27 July 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/er.1751

Exergo-economic analysis of micro pin fin heat sinks

Ali Kos-ar,y

Mechatronics Engineering Program, Sabanci University, Tuzla, Istanbul 34956, Turkey

SUMMARY
A parametric study of thermoeconomic performance over four micro pin fin heat sinks of different spacing and
shapes was conducted. Unit cost per product exergy, relative cost difference, and exergo-economic factor were
utilized to evaluate the thermoeconomic performance. The effect of working fluid on the thermoeconomic
performance was also investigated using R-123 and water as working fluids. Unit costs per product exergy were
obtained to evaluate the product costs (total exergy change between exit and inlet streams) in micro pin fin heat
sinks at fixed mass flow rate and fixed pressure drop. The results of the thermoeconomic analysis were compared
with the results of a past exergy performance study by the author.
In the light of raw experimental data acquired from the past studies of the author, important differences between
the results of exergy and exergo-economic performances were observed. It was found that the unit cost of
exergy change decreased as electrical power increased and the relative cost difference approached to unity
at high electrical powers (greater than 20 W). Moreover, high exergo-economic factor values (more than 0.5) were
obtained at low electrical powers while exergo-economic factors had a small value at high electrical powers.
When looking at the effect of the working fluid, higher cost per Watts of the products (up to the double of R-123)
was obtained with water compared with R-123 at both fixed mass flow rate and pressure drop. No significant
effect of pin fin spacing on the unit cost of exergy change was observed at fixed mass flow rate, while higher
unit costs (up to 102%) were recorded at fixed pressure drop for scarcely packed pin fin heat sinks. Finally, the
unit cost of exergy change was found to be independent of pin fin shape at fixed mass flow rate, whereas at
fixed pressure drop, the hydrofoil-based pin fin heat sink had higher unit costs (up to 1.8 times as much)
when compared with the unit costs of pin fin heat sinks having flow separation promoting pin fins. Copyright r
2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS
exergo-economic performance; micro pin fin heat sinks; micro scale cooling; electronics cooling; thermoeconomics; microchannels

Correspondence
*Ali Kos-ar, Mechatronics Engineering Program, Sabanci University, Tuzla, Istanbul 34956, Turkey.
y
E-mail: kosara@sabanciuniv.edu

Received 19 August 2009; Revised 23 May 2010; Accepted 24 May 2010

1. INTRODUCTION reported for such novel designs in the literature [14–17].

Heat and fluid flow in micro domains has attracted great
attention in the heat transfer community during the last
decade. The enhancement in convective heat transfer
with diminishing size has been exploited in many
applications such as in microengines [1–3], microreactors
[4–6], thermal microactuators [7], and drug delivery
systems [8,9]. As a result, the emerging extensive
literature reviews on heat and fluid flow in micro scale
during the past decade summarize copious research
efforts in this field [10–13]. Recently, second-generation
micro heat sinks with extended surface areas were
employed to promote convective heat transfer in micro
scale, and significant enhancement in heat transfer was
However, these second-generation micro heat sinks also
introduce additional pressure losses, a problem that
requires serious consideration. Thermal hydraulic per-
formance analysis was performed to evaluate the
performance of such heat sinks, and important design
guidelines have been continuously provided [10]. Despite
the heavy focus on the design of second-generation
micro heat sinks, the scope of this emerging research
area is restricted to the thermal hydraulic performance.
Therefore, a supplemental thermodynamic and thermo-
economic approach is vital to add thermoeconomic and
thermodynamic dimensions to micro heat sink design.
As stipulated in many studies, exergy may be
regarded as a reliable measure of the potential of a

Copyright r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exergo-economic analysis
substance to impact the environment. Thus, exergy may
serve to better assess the potential environmental
benefits of utilizing green energy in comparison with
energy-based parameters [18–20]. In fact, Rosen et al.
[18] showed that performance analyses based on energy
consumption could actually mislead, whereas exergy
would successfully indicate improvements of efficiency
and reductions of thermodynamic losses [18]. Further-
more, Rosen et al. [18] successfully accounted for the
environmental impact of a process by correlating its
exergy efficiency to the amount of emissions and to the
sustainability index. In particular, the group showed
that the environmental impact could be reduced, and
sustainability could be enhanced by increasing the
exergy efficiency. To address to the lack of information
about thermodynamic performance of second-generation
micro heat sinks, Kos-ar [21] investigated thermo-
dynamic performance of four different micro pin fin
heat sinks. The effect of pin fin geometry and spacing as
well as the effect of working fluid (water, R-123) on the
exergetic efficiency was discussed. A basic exergy ana-
lysis was carried out to obtain exergetic efficiencies of
four different micro pin fin heat sinks. According to this
study, the micro pin fin device having cone-shaped pin
fins displayed the best heat transfer performance, and
devices with the best heat transfer performance also had
the best exergy performance and the least environ-
mental effect for a fixed mass flow rate, pressure drop,
and pumping power. These results disagreed with
thermal hydraulic performance trends. Moreover,
densely arranged pin fins that promoted flow separation
were required to maximize exergy performance, while
the use of R-123 as a working fluid augmented the
exergy performance and deteriorated the heat transfer
performance in comparison with water.
Evaluating the exergy efficiency of micro heat
sinks is a vital subject in recent research directions in
energy. Raising their efficiency in a cost-effective
manner could be a significant extension of the ongoing
research activities in energy regarding micro and nano
scale systems. It should be also emphasized that micro-
fabrication costs for micro heat sinks should be
reduced to realize the extensive use of micro heat sinks;
however, their operation cost during their lifetime
should be also considered as an important design
parameter.
Since the appearance of the concept of ‘thermo-
economics’ for the very first time [22], extensive re-
search was conducted in this multidisciplinary research
area, and valuable reviews are now available in the
literature [23,24]. Thermoeconomic analysis of heat
exchangers became a primary research direction and a
number of studies, which were basically performance
optimization studies, were conducted in this field
[25–35]. In these studies, an objective function was
defined in terms of investment and exergy destruction
costs, and it was aimed at minimizing this objective
function.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
A. Kos-ar
Different from the literature, this paper continues the
work of Kos- ar [21], where the data presented in this
reference is based on the past experimental work
[14,17], and also provides a thermoeconomic approach
to second-generation micro heat sink design for the
very first time. This paper will first present an overview
on both the geometry of four different micro pin fin
heat sinks and their microfabrication methods. There-
after, theory about exergy and thermoeconomic ana-
lysis on a typical heat sink will be covered. In the results
and discussion section, unit cost per Watts of products,
relative cost difference, and the exergo-economic factor
will be used as thermoeconomic parameters; the effects
of the pin fin geometry, spacing, and working fluid on
these parameters will also be put forth. This discussion
will provide valuable information about the effect of fin
geometry, spacing, and working fluid on environmental
impact and exergo-economic performance of micro pin
fin heat sinks, which is the main contribution of this
study. In the conclusions, the major findings of this
study will be included.
2. DEVICE OVERVIEW
A typical micro pin fin heat sink is depicted in Figure 1.
The working fluid flows from the inlet to the outlet
across micro pin fins located on the Silicon substrate. A
Pyrex cover on the top enables flow visualization. Heat
is supplied from the bottom of the heat sink and
removed with convection from both the base and micro
pin fin surfaces.
Four different micro pin fin heat sinks were tested in
this study (Figure 1 and Table I). The pin fin shapes can
be divided into two categories: streamlined (e.g. hydro-
foil) shapes and pins formed from objects that promote
flow separation (e.g. circular). Moreover, there are both
densely packed and sparsely packed arrangements for
Figure 1. Geometry and arrangements of pin fins employed in
this study (the vertical projected length of a micro pin fin is
100 mm for all devices): (a) Circular pin fins (1CD); (b) Circular pin
fins (2 CLD); (c) Hydrofoil-based pin fins (3H); and (d) Cone-
Shaped pin fins (4c).
1005
A. Kos-ar Exergo-economic analysis

Table I. Devices tested in this study.

Device number Device Pin shape Pin configuration ST (mm) SL (mm)

1CD (Figure 1(a)) Pin fin Circular Staggered 150 150

2CLD (Figure 1(b)) Pin fin Circular Staggered 150 350
3H (Figure 1(c)) Pin fin Hydrofoil Staggered 300 500
4C (Figure 1(d)) Pin fin Cone shaped Staggered 150 350

circular micro pin fins. All the micro pin fins were 3. EXERGY (SECOND LAW
arranged in staggered configuration. R-123 and water EFFICIENCY) AND EXERGO-
is used as working fluid in this study. To establish a ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
balance between very high pressure drops due to fric-
tional losses (very low Reynolds numbers) with dimin- Data obtained from the voltage, current, and pressure
ishing hydraulic diameter and the promotion of heat measurements were used to calculate the average heat
transfer coefficient due to the increased surface area and sink surface temperatures, exit fluid temperatures,
diminishing length scale, the vertical projected length of exergetic efficiencies, unit costs per Watts of the
all devices was determined as 100 mm (Figure 1). To products, relative cost differences, and exergo-econom-
maximize the pin fin height (increase heat transfer area) ic factors. The electrical input power and heater
while maintaining the structural integrity of the devices at resistance were determined using the measured voltage
the same time, the author set the pin fin height to 243 mm. and current values, respectively. Thereafter, the heater
Figure 2 displays a more detailed CAD model of a electrical resistance–temperature calibration curve was
typical micro pin fin heat sink. Working fluid of am- used for determining the average heater temperature.
bient temperature flows through the inlet plenum The surface temperature at the base of the heat sink
across the pin fins is heated by the heater residing on was then calculated as:
the opposite side (Figure 2(b)) and leaves the device _
through the exit plenum. The average surface tem- Qt
Tav ¼ Tav;heater  ð1Þ
perature of the device is obtained from the heater re- ks Apl
sistance readings. To minimize ambient heat losses, an The flow availability, also referred to as flow exergy,
air gap is formed on the two ends of the side walls, and is employed to evaluate second law efficiencies. It is
an inlet and exit plenum, 4 mm long each, are etched expressed as a function of specific enthalpy, entropy,
on the thin silicon substrate (147 mm). A Pyrex cover kinetic and potential energy transfer, and environ-
seals the device from the top and allows flow visuali- mental conditions as:
zation. Pressure taps are located at the inlet and exit of
the device to measure the inlet and exit pressures. v2
exf ¼ h  ho  To ðs  so Þ1 1gz ð2Þ
To microfabricate the micro pin fin heat sinks, a 2
double side polished, n-type o1004 single crystal si- The micro pin fin heat sink can be modeled as a heat
licon wafer is processed on both sides using standard exchanger with one stream (Figure 3), while con-
lithography and etching (RIE and DRIE) techniques. tinuous heat input is supplied. More information could
The main flow loop contains the micro pin fin device, a be found in classical textbooks [36,37]. As a result of
pulseless gear pump, and flow meter. The micro heater interaction with the environment, the temperature at
was connected to a power supply with an adjustable the exit of the stream increases, and different state
DC current to provide power to the device. Heater properties are reached at the exit. Based on the control
resistance, pressure, and flow measurements were ta- volume in Figure 3, the following exergy balance could
ken at a fixed flow rate in the loop. Pressure and flow be stated under the steady state assumption:
rate data were acquired together with the electrical  
power data and were transferred to the spreadsheet file To _ _ cv 1m_ exf;1  m_ exf;2  I_cv ð3Þ
0¼ 1 QW
for data reduction. The data obtained from flow Tav
meters, pressure sensors, and heater resistance were Noting that work performed by the control volume
reduced to average device surface temperatures, exit is zero, the following exergy efficiency expression could
fluid temperatures, pressure drops, and pumping be derived after appropriate arrangements:
powers in the spreadsheet file. The details about the
m_ exf;2  m_ exf;1
microfabrication process flow, experimental procedure Z¼   ð4Þ
for temperature, and power and pressure measure- To _
1 Q
ments can be found in the previous study of Kos-ar and Tav
Peles [17]. The uncertainties of the measured values in where
the thermoeconomic analysis were obtained from the
manufacturer’s specification sheets (Table II). Q_ ¼ m_ cðTf;2  Tf;1 Þ ð5Þ

1006 Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
Exergo-economic analysis A. Kos-ar

Figure 2. (a) CAD model of a micro pin fin heat sink (1CD); (b) heater dimensions (dimensions in mm, at the bottom of the device); and
(c) top view of the device (dimensions in mm).

To, po

Table II. Uncertainties in parameters used in this study. Tf1 Tf2

. .
Uncertainty Error m Control m
Inlet Exit
Mass flow rate 71.0% Exf1 Volume Exf2
Pin fin diameter/chord thickness 71.0 mm
Fluid temperature, Tf 70.11C
Electrical power, P 70.15% Heat input
Average surface temperature, T 70.51C
Figure 3. Schematic representation of the interaction between
Pressure drop, Dp 70.25%
the micro pin fin heat sink and the environment.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1007
DOI: 10.1002/er
A. Kos-ar Exergo-economic analysis

The total exergy change between exit and inlet 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
streams is the total product of the micro pin fin heat
sink, whereas the exergy due to the heat input from the In this section, the results of exergo-economic analysis
heater is considered as the input. In exergo-economic performed for four different micro pin fin devices are
analysis, the cost of the exergy products is related to discussed. For this, the data in Table III are used as cost
the cost of input (fuel) as: rate inputs for the investment costs. Typical costs for
cF exF 1c_inv the microfabrication of micro pin fin heat sinks are
cp ¼ ð6Þ listed in this table. For the microfabrication, the
exp
facilities of the Nanotechnology Center of Cornell
Accordingly, the unit cost per Watts of the products University were utilized. It should be noted that
can be expressed as (as a function of the exergies of the fabrication costs are approximately equal for all
product and the unit costs of investment and input the devices as the fabrication procedure is standard. The
electricity): cost of the necessary tubing, packaging, and fittings for
  realizing the operation of such heat sinks was also taken
To _
1 Qce 1c_inv into account, and the prices of the corresponding
Tav products are displayed in the website of Cole Parmer
cp ¼ ð7Þ
_ f;2  exf;1 Þ
mðex company (http://www.coleparmer.com/). In the calcula-
The unit cost per Watts of the products could be also tion of investment costs per time, annual operating
written as a function of pressure drop, which is a sig- hours were assumed at 2500 h. In addition, the cost of
nificant performance parameter: the electricity provided to heat heat sinks was taken as
  the cost displayed by the Investment Support and
To _ Promotion Agency of Republic of Turkey [38]. This cost
1 Qce 1c_inv
Tav (0.094USD/kWh or 6.51  10-5USD/W for assumed
cp ¼  0:5 ð8Þ
2DprL operating hours of 2500 h) was utilized as the input cost
Amin ðexf;2  exf;1 Þ rate in all of the analyses performed in this study.
ff Nrow
Figure 4(a–c) displays the unit costs per total exergy
The relative cost difference r is defined as the ratio change between exit and inlet streams (cp) as a function
between the relative cost per product exergy to the of electrical power for all the devices. As seen from
heating cost per rate of change of exergy due to heat Figure 4(c), the unit cost of exergy change decreases as
interactions. It shows the magnitude of the product the electrical power is increased. Thus, micro pin fin
cost relative to the heating cost per rate of change of heat sinks need to be operated at high electrical powers
exergy due to heat interactions: (more than 10 W) in order to obtain reduced operation
cp  ce costs. This result totally complies with the aggressive
r¼ ð9Þ cooling demands in micro heat sink design, where
ce
high cooling rates are urgently sought to realize
Exergo-economic factor f is a performance para- superior cooling capabilities. The trend in the unit cost
meter in exergo-economic analysis and is defined as: has an asymptotic behavior and converges to a certain
c_ value (0.00012 $/W) for all the devices. At low elec-
f ¼   inv  ð10Þ trical power values, however, the unit cost becomes
To _
c_inv 1ce 1 Q  mðex
_ f;2  exf;1 Þ much higher than the value at the convergence (greater
Tav
than 10 times). This trend is totally opposite to the
Similarly, the exergo-economic factor could also be decreasing trend in exergy efficiency with electrical
expressed as a function of pressure drop as: power as reported in Kos- ar [21]. The reason is that
the denominator of the exergy efficiency expression
c_inv
f¼     !
To : 2DprL 0:5
c_inv 1ce 1 QAmin ðexf;2 exf;1 Þ Table III. Investment cost rates
Tav ff Nrow
ð11Þ Budget item Budget (in $) Per device (in $)

A low value of f suggests that a saving in the micro Fabrication 6500 (for 14 devices) 464
pin fin heat sink could be achieved by improving Pump1head 2000 2000
exergy efficiency, while a high value implies that a Fittings and tubing 1000 1000
Packaging 1500 1500
decrease in capital costs is desirable.
Total cost (dollars) 4964
The relative cost differences and exergo-economic
Investment cost per 0.099
factors of four different micro pin fin heat sinks are
hour (dollars/h)
evaluated on the basis of above expressions. Related
Investment cost per 2.76E05
results and relevant discussions will be included in the
second (dollars/s) c_inv
next section.

1008 Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
Exergo-economic analysis A. Kos-ar

0.01
0.01 0.01 scarse

cp ($/W)
cp ($/W)
scarse

cp ($/W)
Water dense coneshape
0.001 R123 0.001 0.001 hydrofoil

0.0001 0.0001 0.0001

(a) 0 10 20 30 40 (b) 0 10 20 30 40 (c) 0 20 40 60 80 100
P (W) P (W) P (W)
100 100 100
Water scarse scarse
R123 dense coneshape
r 10 r 10 r 10 hydrofoil
1 1 1
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 20 40 60
(d) (e) (f)
P (W) P (W) P (W)
1 1 1
Water scarse scarse
R123 dense coneshape
f 0.1 f 0.1 f 0.1 hydrofoil

0.01 0.01 0.01

0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 0 20 40 60 80 100
(g) P (W) (h) P (W) (i) P (W)

Figure 4. (a–c) cp values of tested devices (d–f) r values of tested devices (g–i) f values of tested devices: (a) Device 1CD; (b) Devices
1CD, 2CLD; (c) Devices 2CLD, 4C, 3H; (d) Device 1CD; (e) Devices 1CD, 2CLD; (f) Devices 2CLD, 4C, 3H; (g) Device 1CD; (h) Devices
1CD, 2CLD; and (i) Devices 2CLD, 4C, 3H

appears in the numerator, while the numerator of this
expression becomes the denominator in the unit cost
expression. Thus, an inverse relationship between exergy
efficiency and unit cost is apparent. As a result, it can be
concluded that the reduced cost with higher electrical
power comes with a trade-off in exergy performance.
Figure 4(d–f) demonstrates the relative cost differ-
ence r with electrical power. As r is a strong function of
cp and has a direct relationship with cp (Equation (9)),
an asymptotic profile (starting from high values r410)
is not surprising for r. It can be observed that r ap-
proaches to unity at high electrical powers (30 W)
implying that cp approaches to the electricity cost ce at
sufficiently high electrical powers.
The dependence of exergo-economic factor on elec-
trical power is shown in Figure 4(g–i). High f values
are present for low electrical powers (o5 W), whereas f
has a small value at high electrical powers (420 W). It
can be deduced that the cost per exergy loss pre-
dominates unit investment costs at higher electrical
powers. The magnitude exergy losses are much greater
at high heating powers because the denominator of
Equation 10 includes exergy destruction. Thus, the
denominator of Equation 10 becomes bigger with the
increased exergy destruction, while the investment
costs do not change with working conditions and has a
constant trend. As seen from Figure 4(g–i), f already
becomes smaller than 0.1 at moderate heating powers
suggesting that exergy efficiency should be rather im-
proved to accomplish significant saving at moderate
and high heating powers (45 W), while the focus
should be on reducing capital costs if the micro heat
sinks are operated at lower input powers.
The following subsections will cover the parametric
effects (working fluid, pin fin spacing, pin fin shape) on
thermoeconomic performance to complement the dis-
cussion made above.
4.1. Working fluid effect
Two different working fluids are utilized to display the
effect of working fluid on the parameter cp (Water and
R-123). R-123 has lower thermophysical properties
(thermal conductivity and specific heat) than does water.
As a result, less heat input is needed to heat R-123 when
compared with heating water, so that higher exit fluid
temperatures and surface temperatures are obtained at
a fixed heat input and fixed mass velocity for R-123.
R-123 (HCFC-123) is a substitute for CFC-11,
which was extensively used in centrifugal chillers and
heat exchangers. CFC-11 has been successfully re-
placed with HCFC-123, which has a very low ozone
depletion potential (0.016 relative to R-11), in the
1990s. Even though R-123 is a HCFC, it has the lowest
global warming index of all common fluorocarbons
[39]. The United Nations Environment Programme
Review (March 2003) also confirmed that HCFC-123’s
favorable overall impact on the environment is attri-
butable to its low ozone depletion potential, very low
global warming potential, very short atmospheric life,
extremely low emissions, and the highest efficiency of
all current options [40,41]. R-123 will be available for
long term use since the Montreal Protocol phase out
schedule for CFC and HCFCs protects R-123 stock
until 2030 [41,42].
For a given surface temperature rise or a given exit
fluid temperature, the required heat input is higher for
water. The numerator in the cp expression is thus larger
for water at fixed mass flow rate, which produces
higher cp values for water (Figure 5(a–c)). A similar

Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1009
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A. Kos-ar Exergo-economic analysis

mdot=0.00005 kg/s mdot=0.000155 kg/s

0.01 0.01
Water
Water
R123

Cp ($/W)
Cp ($/W)

0.001 0.001 R123

0.0001 0.0001
0 2 4 6 8 0 5 10 15 20 25
(a) P (W) (b) P (W)

deltap=4.8 kPa deltap=24 kPa

0.01 0.001
Water
R-123 Water
Cp ($/W)

Cp ($/W)
0.001 R123

0.0001 0.0001
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
(c) P (W) (d) P (W)

Figure 5. (a, b) Effect of working fluid on cp at fixed mass flow rate (Device 1CD). (c, d) Effect of working fluid on cp at fixed pressure drop.

mdot=0.00005 kg/s mdot=0.000075 kg/s

0.01 0.01

Dense Dense
Cp ($/W)
Cp ($/W)

0.001 Scarse 0.001 Scarse

0.0001 0.0001
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
(a) P (W) (b) P (W)

deltap=4.2 kPa deltap=22 kPa

0.01 0.001

Dense
Cp ($/W)

Cp ($/W)

Dense
0.001 Scarse Scarse

0.0001 0.0001
0 2 4 6 8 0 5 10 15 20 25
(c) P (W) (d) P (W)

Figure 6. (a, b) Effect of pin fin spacing on cp at fixed mass flow rate (Devices 1CD, 2CLD) (c, d) Effect of pin fin spacing on cp
at fixed pressure.

profile is prevalent for the fixed pressure drop case due
to the same reason as for the fixed mass flow rate case
(Figure 5(d, e)). Lower cp values are obtained from
R-123 along with better exergy efficiencies [21] so that
a positive effect on the unit cost of the products
(a reduction more than one half) and exergy efficiency
could be provided by changing the working fluid (from
water to R-123). However, the thermal performance
(Nusselt number, heat transfer coefficient) decreases
with the use of R-123, which states a trade-off between
thermal and thermodynamic/exergo-economic perfor-
mances in micro pin fin heat sinks due to the change in
working fluid.
pin fin device and densely packed circular micro pin fin
device were first used at fixed mass flow rate. No
significant effect of pin fin spacing on cp exists. This result
is opposite to the exergy efficiency results, where densely
packed pin fins had better exergy performance [21]. Thus,
it can be concluded that the unit cost per exergy of the
products remains the same regardless the spacing of pin
fins. A different trend is valid for fixed pressure drop case
(Figure 6(c, d)), where the unit costs are higher (up to
102%) for the scarcely packed configuration so that it
follows the same trend as in exergy efficiency [21]. The
effects of pin fin spacing observed at fixed pressure drop
are more apparent at lower input powers.

4.2. Pin fin spacing effect 4.3. Pin fin shape effects
Figure 6(a, b) displays the effect of pin fin spacing on the Three different pin fin geometries were used to
unit cost of products cp. Scarcely packed circular micro evaluate the effect of micro pin fin shape. As shown

1010 Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
Exergo-economic analysis A. Kos-ar

mdot=0.00005 kg/s
mdot=0.00015 kg/s
0.01
100
scarse scarse
coneshape coneshape
Cp ($/W)

Cp ($/W)
0.001 hydrofoil hydrofoil
10

0.0001 1
0 5 10 15 20 25
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
(a) (b) P (W)
P (W)

deltap=5 kPa deltap=43 kPa

0.01 0.001
scarse scarse
coneshape coneshape
Cp ($/W)

Cp ($/W)
hydrofoil hydrofoil
0.001

0.0001 0.0001
0 5 10 15 20 0 10 20 30 40 50
P (W)
(c) P (W) (d)

Figure 7. (a, b) Effect of pin fin shape on cp at fixed mass flow rate. (c, d) Effect of pin fin shape on cp at fixed pressure drop.

in Figure 7(a, b), there is no significant effect of pin fin
shape on the unit cost per exergy of products at fixed
mass flow rate, which demonstrates the independence
of unit costs on pin fin shape and shows another
difference from the results in exergy efficiency
performed by Kos-ar [21], where flow separation
promoting micro pin fin heat sinks had a better exergy
performance. For constant pressure drop, the profile is
different (Figure 7(c, d)). Hydrofoil based micro pin
fins have higher cp values when compared with the
others (up to 179%), whereas cp values of circular and
cone-shaped pin fins are close to each other. This
difference between streamlined and unstreamlined
micro pin fins is more pronounced at lower input
powers (o5 W). In terms of exergy efficiency, hydro-
foil-based pin fins also had an inferior performance
over separation promoting pin fins [21] similar to the
results of exergo-economic analysis.
 The relative cost difference approaches to unity at
high electrical powers (430 W).
 High exergo-economic values are obtained at low
electrical powers (o5 W), whereas f has a small
value at high electrical powers (420 W).
 Lower cost per Watts of the products can be
obtained with R-123 when compared with water
at both fixed mass flow rate and pressure drop.
 No significant effect of pin fin spacing on cp is
present at fixed mass flow rate, while scarcely
packaged pin fin heat sinks have higher unit costs
at fixed pressure drop.
 cp is independent of pin fin shape at fixed mass
flow rate. At fixed pressure drop, the hydrofoil-
based pin fin heat sink has higher unit costs
compared with the heat sinks having flow separa-
tion promoting pin fins, which is trendwise similar
to exergy performance results.

5. CONCLUSIONS NOMENCLATURE
Exergo-economic analysis of four micro scale pin fin Amin 5 minimum cross-sectional area (m2)
heat sinks has been conducted. Two performance c 5 specific heat at constant pressure
criteria (fixed mass flow rate, fixed pressure drop) have (kJ kg1 1C1)
been used to evaluate the unit cost per Watts of the cp 5 unit cost per Watts of the products
products, relative cost difference, and the exergo- ($ W1)
economic factor. The main conclusions drawn from d 5 pin fin diameter, vertical projected
this study are as follows: length of pin fin (m)
ex 5 specific exergy (J kg1)
 The unit cost of exergy change decreases as the f 5 exergo-economic factor
electrical power is increased. Thus, micro pin fin ff 5 friction factor
heat sinks need to be operated at high electrical g 5 gravitational constant (m s2)
powers (more than 10 W) in order to obtain G 5 mass velocity based on minimum
reduced operation costs, which is in contrast to cross-sectional area (kg m2)
the exergy efficiency results. h 5 specific enthalpy (J kg1)

Int. J. Energy Res. 2011; 35:1004–1013 r 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1011
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A. Kos-ar Exergo-economic analysis

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