Effect of strut inclination on thermo-hydraulic performance of X-type lattice heat sinks: A numerical study
Okeke, Ebelechukwu, Khatamifar, Mehdi, and Lin, Wenxian (2026) Effect of strut inclination on thermo-hydraulic performance of X-type lattice heat sinks: A numerical study. Applied Thermal Engineering, 304. 132615.
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Abstract
A numerical study was conducted to examine the influence of strut curvature angle α (40°–60°) and inclination angle β (30°–40°), on flow structure, convective heat transfer, pressure drop, pumping power, and overall thermo-hydraulic performance of X-type lattice structure over a wide Reynolds number range (Re ≈ 2645–7936). For all configurations, the average Nusselt number (Nu<inf>avg</inf>) was found to increase monotonically with Re, while the pressure drop and pumping power per unit length rises more rapidly, resulting in a gradual reduction in thermal-hydraulic performance at higher Re. α was identified as the dominant geometric factor: decreasing α enhances convective heat transfer through stronger geometric confinement, intensified flow acceleration and deflection, and larger thermal gradients within the lattice core, although it also increases pressure losses and pumping power. In contrast, the influence of β is relatively minor and primarily serves to fine-tune the flow and thermal fields. Overall, improved performance can be achieved at small α and moderate Re, where convective heat transfer enhancement outweighs hydraulic losses, indicating that balanced geometric design, rather than maximization of individual lattice angles or heat transfer metrics, is essential for achieving high-performance lattice heat sinks. Excellent correlations were developed for Nu<inf>avg</inf>, pressure drop per unit length, pumping power per unit length and thermal-hydraulic performance factor to quantify the combined effects of Re, α and β. These findings provide insight into the thermo-hydraulic behaviour of additively manufactured lattice-based thermal-management systems for compact and energy-efficient engineering applications.
| Item ID: | 93460 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1873-5606 |
| Keywords: | Heat transfer, Periodic cellular structure, Pressure-drop, Thermo-hydraulic performance, X-type lattice structures |
| Copyright Information: | © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Date Deposited: | 30 Oct 2026 04:14 |
| FoR Codes: | 40 ENGINEERING > 4012 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering > 401204 Computational methods in fluid flow, heat and mass transfer (incl. computational fluid dynamics) @ 70% 40 ENGINEERING > 4012 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering > 401299 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering not elsewhere classified @ 30% |
| SEO Codes: | 17 ENERGY > 1701 Energy efficiency > 170102 Industrial energy efficiency @ 50% 24 MANUFACTURING > 2499 Other manufacturing > 249999 Other manufacturing not elsewhere classified @ 50% |
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