Numerical study of microchannel heat sink performance using nanofluids

• Published in: International communications in heat and mass transfer Vol. 57; pp. 27 - 35
• Main Authors: Yang, Yue-Tzu, Tsai, Kuo-Teng, Wang, Yi-Hsien, Lin, Shih-Han
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2014
• Subjects: CFD; Microchannel heat sink; Nanofluids; Single-phase model; Two-phase model; CFD; Single-phase model; Microchannel heat sink; Two-phase model; Nanofluids
• ISSN: 0735-1933; 1879-0178
• DOI: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2014.07.006

This study presents the numerical simulation of three-dimensional incompressible steady and laminar and turbulent fluid flow of a trapezoidal micro-channel heat sink (MCHS) using CuO/water nanofluid as a cooling fluid. Navier–Stokes equations with conjugate energy equation are discretized by the finite-volume method. CFD predictions of laminar and turbulent forced convection of CuO/water nanofluids by single-phase and two-phase models (mixture model) are compared. The parameters studied include the particle volume fraction (ϕ=0.204%, 0.256%, 0.294% and 0.4%), and the volumetric flow rate (V˙=10mL/min, 15mL/min and 20mL/min). Comparisons of the thermal resistance predicted by the single-phase and two-phase models with corresponding experimental results show that the two-phase model is more accurate than the single-phase model. In the laminar flow, the thermal resistance of nanofluids is smaller than that of the water, which decreases as the particle volume fraction and the volumetric flow rate increase. In addition, the pressure drop of both nanofluid-cooled MCHS and pure water-cooled MCHS is discussed. For the laminar flow case, the pressure drop increases slightly for nanofluid-cooled MCHS.