The Flow Characteristics and Thermal Performance of Nanofluid in a Vertical Microchannel: A numerical study

Abstract

Electronic cooling remains a challenge that requires further research and investigation due to the ever-higher heat flux. Microchannels are one of several high heat flux heat dissipation designs that meet this requirement. Nanofluids exhibit not only dramatically improved thermal conductivity, but also thermophysical properties that are strongly temperature- and size-dependent, which can be achieved by adding nanoparticles with diameters less than 100 nm to conventional liquid working fluids. increase. Nanofluids are expected to be used as coolants in microchannel heat sinks to achieve a double benefit in improving heat transfer and to meet the increasing cooling demands of electronic devices. The present work focus on the flow characteristics and enhancement of heat transfer in a vertical microchannel with a triangular microchannel using magnesium oxide water nanofluid. A wide range of volume fractions was tested in this work, the governing equations were solved using the finite volume technique. An external heat flux was applied on the three walls. The three-dimensional analysis showed that the increase in the volume fraction promoted the heat transfer remarkably, the water base fluid showed the lowest Nu number along the microchannel wall, while no penalty for the pressure drop was achieved with the increase in the volume fraction.