Numerical Simulation of Nanofluid Heat Transfer in Microchannel Heat Sinks

The UK Fluids Network is an EPSRC-funded network of academic and industrial research groups, focused on innovative developments and applications in Fluid Mechanics. It funds Short Research Visits.

Heat dissipation in the electronic components is being a critical issue due to the faster increase in the components’ heat flux and increasing demand for the miniature in features’ size. The heat flux of the electronic chips may exceed 400 W/cm2 and high performance cooling techniques are required to keep device temperatures low for acceptable performance and reliability. Microchannel heat sink (MCHS) is a concept well suited for many electronic applications because of its ability to remove a large amount of heat from a small area. However, one of the limitations of MCHS’ performance which does not cause a failure but bounds the heat transfer rate is the limitation owing to transport properties of the working fluid such as its thermal conductivity. Nanofluid application is a recent area of investigation with promising results. One of the most advanced methods to improve the thermal conductivity of the working fluid is the dispersion of nanoscale solid particles into plane fluid. By adding 5% of the working fluid mass with nanoparticles, the liquid thermal conductivity can be increased by up to 20%. However, it is well known that the addition of nanoparticles in a working fluid will not only represent an improvement on the liquid thermal conductivity but will also influence the liquid viscosity and density as these two properties will directly influence the two-phase mixture with the liquid and the nanoparticles. The application of nanofluids must be properly investigated in order to address their application to better identify the constrains and issues related to the use of nanofluids in MCHS and this has motivated the present study.