Numerical simulation of heat transfer in a micro channel heat sinks using nanofluids

In this study, a numerical simulation of copper microchannel heatsink (MCHS) using nanofluids as coolants is presented. The nanofluid is a mixture of pure water and nanoscale metallic or nonmetallic particles with various volume fractions. Also, the effects of various volume fractions, volumetric flow rate and various materials of nanoparticles on the performance of MCHS have been developed. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model was developed using the commercial software package FLUENT, to investigate the conjugate fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena in micro channel heatsinks. The results show that the cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with water based nanofluid containing Al₂O₃ (vol 8%) is enhanced by about 4.5% compared with micro channel heatsink with pure water. Nanofluids reduce both the thermal resistance and the temperature difference between the top (heated) surface of the MCHS and inlet nanofluid compared with that pure water. The cooling performance of a micro channel heat sink with metal nanofluids improves compared with that of a micro channel heat sink with oxide metal nanofluids because the thermal conductivity of metal nanofluid is higher than oxide metal nanofluids. Micro channel heat sinks with nanofluids are expected to be good candidates as the next generation cooling devices for removing ultra high heat flux.     

Experimental investigation of the Cu/R141b nanofluids on the evaporation/boiling heat transfer characteristics for surface with capillary micro-channels

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the heat transfer characteristic of a vertical copper plate with rectangular micro-channels. In this research, Cu/R141b nanofluids were used as the working fluid. Three different volume concentrations—0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 %—of Cu nanoparticles with an average diameter of 20 nm dispersed in R141b were prepared. Experiments were performed to measure thermal resistance of the microchannel surface under a steady operating pressure range of 0.86 × 10⁵ Pa to 2 × 10⁵ Pa. Thermal resistance weakened with addition of nanoparticles into the base fluid. The maximum reduction effect of the thermal resistance was 50 %, which corresponds to 0.01 % volume concentration of nanofluid at low operating pressure. The operating pressure significantly affects thermal performance of the microchannel surface. This paper also studied heat transfer characteristics for a Cu nanoparticle-coated surface with rectangular microchannels, which were produced by heating in different volume concentrations from 0.001 to 0.1 %. Nanoparticle layer on the micro-channel surface is responsible for enhanced heat transfer of nanofluids with 0.001 and 0.01 % volume concentrations.     

Nanofluid flow and heat transfer due to a stretching cylinder in the presence of magnetic field

In this paper, flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a stretching cylinder in the presence of magnetic field has been investigated. The governing partial differential equations with the corresponding boundary conditions are reduced to a set of ordinary differential equations with the appropriate boundary conditions using similarity transformation, which is then solved numerically by the fourth order Runge–Kutta integration scheme featuring a shooting technique. Different types of nanoparticles as copper (Cu), silver (Ag), alumina (Al₂O₃) and titanium oxide (TiO₂) with water as their base fluid has been considered. The influence of significant parameters such as nanoparticle volume fraction, nanofluids type, magnetic parameter and Reynolds number on the flow and heat transfer characteristics is discussed. It was found that the Nusselt number increases as each of Reynolds number or nanoparticles volume fraction increase, but it decreases as magnetic parameter increase. Also it can be found that choosing copper (for small of magnetic parameter) and alumina (for large values of magnetic parameter) leads to the highest cooling performance for this problem.     

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of heat transfer and fluid flow in a microchannel with nanofluids

Mathematical modeling is performed to simulate forced convection flow of 47 nm- Al₂O₃/water nanofluids in a microchannel using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Single channel flow and conjugate heat transfer problem are taken into consideration and the heat transfer rate using a nanofluid is examined. Simulations are conducted at low Reynolds numbers (2 ≤ Re ≤ 16). The computed average Nusselt number, which is associated with the thermal conductivity of nanofluid, is in the range of 0.6 ￡ [`(Nu)] ￡ 13 0.6 \le \overline{Nu} \le 13 . Results indicate that the average Nusselt number increases with the increase of Reynolds number and particle volume concentration. The fluid temperature distribution is more uniform with the use of nanofluid than that of pure water. Furthermore, great deviations of computed Nusselt numbers using different models associated with the physical properties of a nanofluid are revealed. The results of LBM agree well with the classical CFD method for predictions of flow and heat transfer in a single channel and a microchannel heat sink concerning the conjugate heat transfer problem, and consequently LBM is robust and promising for practical applications.     

Experimental investigation of TiO2/water nanofluid laminar forced convective heat transfer through helical coiled tube

Coiled tubes and nanofludics are two significant techniques to enhance the heat transfer ability of thermal equipments. The forced convective heat transfer and the pressure drop of nanofluid inside straight tube and helical coiled one with a constant wall heat flux were studied experimentally. Distilled water was used as a host fluid and Nanofluids of aqueous TiO₂ nanoparticles (50 nm) suspensions were prepared in various volume concentrations of 0.25–2 %. The heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids is obtained for different nanoparticle concentrations as well as various Reynolds numbers. The experiments covered a range of Reynolds number of 500–4,500. The results show the considerable enhancement of heat transfer rate, which is due to the nanoparticles present in the fluid. Heat transfer coefficient increases by increasing the volume concentration of nanoparticles as well as Reynolds number. Moreover, due to the curvature of the tube when fluid flows inside helical coiled tube instead of straight one, both convective heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop of fluid grow considerably. Also, the thermal performance factors for tested nanofluids are greater than unity and the maximum thermal performance factor of 3.72 is found with the use of 2.0 % volume concentration of nanofluid at Reynolds number of 1,750.     

Experimental evaluation of cooling performance of circular heat sinks for heat dissipation from electronic chips using nanofluid

In this work, an experimental investigation on cooling performance of using nanofluid to replace the pure water as the coolant in a minichannel heat sink is conducted. The heat sink comprises of four circular channels with hydraulic diameter of 6 mm. Thermal and hydraulic performances of the nanofluid cooled minichannel heat sink are evaluated from the results obtained for the Nusselt number, friction factor, thermal resistance and pumping power, with the volume flow rate ranging from 0.3 to 1.5 L/min. The experimental results show that the nanofluid cooled heat sink outperforms the water-cooled one, having significantly higher average heat transfer coefficient. Despite the marked increase in dynamic viscosity due to dispersing the nanoparticles in water, the friction factor for the nanofluid-cooled heat sink is found slightly increased only.     

Cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with nanofluids containing cylindrical nanoparticles (carbon nanotubes)

In this paper, we present the numerical method for explaining the cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-fluid suspensions. Here we will show that with increase of nanolayer thickness of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) the microchannel heat sink temperature gradient will be decreased. By using a theoretical model for explaining the enhancement in the effective thermal conductivity of nanotubes (cylindrical shape particles) for use in nanotube-in-fluid suspension, we investigate the temperature contours and thermal resistance of a microchannel heat sink with MWCNTs (with ~25 nm diameter) dispersed in water.     

The effect of real viscosity on the heat transfer of water based Al2O3 nanofluids in a two-sided lid-driven differentially heated rectangular cavity

The heat transfer and fluid flow behavior of water based Al₂O₃ nanofluids are numerically investigated inside a two-sided lid-driven differentially heated rectangular cavity. Physical properties which have major effects on the heat transfer of nanofluids such as viscosity and thermal conductivity are experimentally investigated and correlated and subsequently used as input data in the numerical simulation. Transport equations are numerically solved with finite volume approach using SIMPLEC algorithm. It was found that not only the thermal conductivity but also the viscosity of nanofluids has a key role in the heat transfer of nanofluids. The results show that at low Reynolds number, increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles increases the viscosity and has a deteriorating effect on the heat transfer of nanofluids. At high Reynolds number, the increase in the viscosity is compensated by force convection and the increase in the volume fraction of nanoparticles which results in an increase in heat transfer is in coincidence with experimental results.     

Natural convection cooling of a localised heat source at the bottom of a nanofluid-filled enclosure

This article presents a numerical study of natural convection cooling of a heat source embedded on the bottom wall of an enclosure filled with nanofluids. The top and vertical walls of the enclosure are maintained at a relatively low temperature. The transport equations for a Newtonian fluid are solved numerically with a finite volume approach using the SIMPLE algorithm. The influence of pertinent parameters such as Rayleigh number, location and geometry of the heat source, the type of nanofluid and solid volume fraction of nanoparticles on the cooling performance is studied. The results indicate that adding nanoparticles into pure water improves its cooling performance especially at low Rayleigh numbers. The type of nanoparticles and the length and location of the heat source proved to significantly affect the heat source maximum temperature.     

Steady laminar mixed convection stagnation-point flow of a nanofluid over a vertical permeable surface in the presence of a magnetic field

A similarity solution for a steady laminar mixed convection boundary layer flow of a nanofluid near the stagnation point on a vertical permeable plate with a magnetic field and a buoyancy force is obtained by solving a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. These equations are solved analytically by using a new kind of a powerful analytic technique for nonlinear problems, namely, the homotopy analysis method (HAM). Three different types of nanoparticles, namely, copper (Cu), alumina (Al₂O₃), and titanium oxide (TiO₂), with water as the base fluid are considered. The influence of the volume fraction of nanoparticles, permeability parameter, magnetic parameter, and mixed convection parameter on the surface shear stress and surface heat transfer, as well as on the velocity and temperature profiles, is considered. It is observed that the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increase with the nanoparticle volume fraction for all types of nanoparticles considered in this study. The greatest values of the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are obtained for Cu nanoparticles.     

Experimental studies on heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of CuO/water nanofluid under turbulent flow in a helically dimpled tube

An experimental investigation on the convective heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in the plain and helically dimpled tube under turbulent flow with constant heat flux is presented in this work using CuO/water nanofluid as working fluid. The effects of the dimples and nanofluid on the Nusselt number and the friction factor are determined in a circular tube with a fully developed turbulent flow for the Reynolds number in the range between 2500 and 6000. The height of the dimple/protrusion was 0.6 mm. The effect of the inclusion of nanoparticles on heat transfer enhancement, thermal conductivity, viscosity, and pressure loss in the turbulent flow region were investigated. The experiments were performed using helically dimpled tube with CuO/water nanofluid having 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% volume concentrations of nanoparticles as working fluid. The experimental results reveal that the use of nanofluids in a helically dimpled tube increases the heat transfer rate with negligible increase in friction factor compared to plain tube. The experimental results showed that the Nusselt number with dimpled tube and nanofluids under turbulent flow is about 19%, 27% and 39% (for 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% volume concentrations respectively) higher than the Nusselt number obtained with plain tube and water. The experimental results of isothermal pressure drop for turbulent flow showed that the dimpled tube friction factors were about 2-10% higher than the plain tube. The empirical correlations developed for Nusselt number and friction factor in terms of Reynolds number, pitch ratio and volume concentration fits with the experimental data within ±15%.     

Natural convection due to heat and mass transfer in a composite system

A numerical study is performed to analyse heat and mass transfer phenomena due to natural convection in a composite cavity containing a fluid layer overlying a porous layer saturated with the same fluid. The flow in the porous region is modelled using Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy model that includes both the effect of macroscopic shear (Brinkman effect) and flow inertia (Forchheimer effect). The vertical walls of the two-dimensional enclosure are isothermal whilst the horizontal walls are adiabatic. The two regions are coupled by equating the velocity and stress components at the interface. The resulting coupled equations in non-dimensional form are solved by an alternating direction implicit method by transforming them into parabolic form by the addition of false transient terms. The numerical results show that the amount of fluid penetration into the porous layer depends strongly upon the Darcy, thermal and solutal Rayleigh numbers. Average Nusselt number decreases while average Sherwood number increases with an increase of the Lewis number. The transfer of heat and mass on the heated wall near the interface depends strongly on the Darcy number. Received on 11 May 1998     

多层平行裂隙型多孔介质通道内流体流动传热特性

基于Brinkman-extended Darcy模型和局部热平衡模型,对多层平行裂隙型多孔介质通道内的流动传热特性进行研究.获得了多层平行裂隙型多孔介质通道内各区域的速度场、温度场、摩擦系数及努塞尔数解析解,并分析了裂隙层数、达西数、空心率、有效热导率之比等对通道内流动传热特性的影响.结果表明:达西数较小时,通道多孔介质层内会出现不随高度变化的达西速度,此达西速度会随裂隙层数的增加而增大,但却不受各裂隙层下多孔介质层位置变化的影响.增加裂隙层数会减弱空心率对压降的影响,会使通道内流体压降升高,但升高程度会逐渐降低.增大热导率之比或减小空心率会使多裂隙通道内出现阶梯式温度分布,而在较小热导率之比或较大空心率时多裂隙情况下的温度分布曲线会趋于一致.此外,当热导率之比较小时,多层裂隙通道内的传热效果在任何空心率下都要优于单裂隙情况,当热导率之比较大时,存在临界空心率使各裂隙层数通道内的传热效果相同,且多裂隙通道内继续增加裂隙层数对传热强度影响不大.     

Forced convection from an isolated heat source in a channel with porous medium

A numerical study is made of flow and heat transfer characteristics of forced convection in a channel that is partially filled with a porous medium. The flow geometry models convective cooling process in a printed circuit board system with a porous insert.The channel walls are assumed to be adiabatic. Comprehensive numerical solutions are acquired to the governing Navier-Stokes equations, using the Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for the regions of porous media. Details of flow and thermal fields are examined over ranges of the principal parameters; i.e., the Reynolds number Re, the Darcy number Da (≡K/H²), the thickness of the porous substrate S, and the ratio of thermal conductivities R_k (≡k_eff/k). Two types of the location of the porous block are considered. The maximum temperature at the heat source and the associated pressure drop are presented for varying Re, Da, S, and R_k. The results illustrate that as S increases or Da decreases, the fluid flow rate increases. Also, as R_k increases for fixed Da, heat transfer rates are augmented. Explicit influences of Re on the flow and heat transport characteristics are also scrutinized. Assessment is made of the utility of using a porous insert by cross comparing the gain in heat transport against the increase in pressure drop.     

Integral treatment for forced convection heat and mass transfer of nanofluids over linear stretching sheet

An integral treatment is proposed for the analysis of the forced convection flow of a nanofluid over a stretching sheet.The obtained results agree well with the numerical results.The results of the presented solution provide an analytic solution,which can be conveniently used in engineering applications.Four types of nanoparticles,i.e.,alumina（Al₂O₃）,silicon dioxide（SiO₂）,silver（Ag）,and copper（Cu）,dispersed in the base fluid of water are examined.The analytical results show that an increase in the volume fraction of nanoparticles increases the thickness of the thermal boundary layer.The reduced Nusselt number is a decreasing function of the volume fraction of nanoparticles.     

Influence of temperature dependent conductivity of a nanofluid in a vertical rectangular duct

Natural convective heat transfer and fluid flow in a vertical rectangular duct filled with a nanofluid is studied numerically assuming the thermal conductivity to be dependent on the fluid temperature. The transport equations for mass, momentum and energy formulated in dimensionless form are solved numerically using finite difference method. Particular efforts have been focused on the effects of the thermal conductivity variation parameter, Grashof number, Brinkman number, nanoparticles volume fraction, aspect ratio and type of nanoparticles on the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the cavity. It is found that the flow was enhanced for the increase in Grashof number, Brinkman number and aspect ratio for any values of conductivity variation parameter and for regular fluid and nanofluid. The heat transfer rate for regular fluid is less than that for the nanofluid for all governing parameters.     

单层微通道热沉拓扑结构对芯片中心热点的降温效能研究

通过热流固耦合模拟分析得到了不同微通道结构热沉基底的温度场及微通道内速度场,研究了相同入流功率下不同单层微通道拓扑结构对中心有高热流密度热点芯片的散热能力。结果表明:相同入流功率(0.05W)下,不同结构的散热能力排序由高到低为Y分形、弯曲散射、直散射(双侧出流)、直螺旋、直散射(单侧出流)、圆螺旋、树状分形、直槽结构;采用中心入流可有效降低芯片中心热点附近的温度,对于中心入流的散射结构,采用对称出流结构可提升其流动传热性能;Y分形结构具有良好的流动传热特性,对于热源面和中心热点均具有良好的散热效果。     

Entropy analysis of unsteady magneto-nanofluid flow past accelerating stretching sheet with convective boundary condition

The unsteady laminar magnetohydrodynamics(MHD) boundary layer flow and heat transfer of nanofluids over an accelerating convectively heated stretching sheet are numerically studied in the presence of a transverse magnetic field with heat source/sink. The unsteady governing equations are solved by a shooting method with the Runge-KuttaFehlberg scheme. Three different types of water based nanofluids, containing copper, aluminium oxide, and titanium dioxide, are taken into consideration. The effects of the pertinent parameters on the fluid velocity, the temperature, the entropy generation number, the Bejan number, the shear stress, and the heat transfer rate at the sheet surface are graphically and quantitatively discussed in detail. A comparison of the entropy generation due to the heat transfer and the fluid friction is made with the help of the Bejan number. It is observed that the presence of the metallic nanoparticles creates more entropy in the nanofluid flow than in the regular fluid flow.     

Numerical study of conjugate heat transfer in rectangular microchannel heat sink with Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>/H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O nanofluid

In the present paper, conjugate heat transfer approach has been used to numerically study laminar forced convective heat transfer characteristics of Al₂O₃/H₂O nanofluid flowing in a silicon microchannel heat sink (MCHS) of rectangular cross-section using thermal dispersion model. Results are presented in terms of thermal resistance that characterizes MCHS performance. It is observed that use of nanofluid improves MCHS performance by reducing fin (conductive) thermal resistance.     

Forced Convection Heat Transfer of Nanofluids in a Porous Channel

This article is concerned with the effects of flow and migration of nanoparticles on heat transfer in a straight channel occupied with a porous medium. Investigation of force convective heat transfer of nanofluids in a porous channel has not been considered completely in the literature and this challenge is generally considered to be an open research topic that may require more study. The fully developed flow and steady Darcy?CBrinkman?CForchheimer equation is employed in porous channel. The thermal equilibrium model is assumed between nanofluid and solid phases. It is assumed that the nanoparticles are distributed non-uniformly inside the channel. As a result the volume fraction distribution equation is also coupled with governing equations. The effects of parameters such as Lewis number, Schmidt number, Brownian diffusion, and thermophoresis on the heat transfer are completely studied. The results show that the local Nusselt number is decreased when the Lewis number is increased. It is observed that as the Schmidt number is increased, the wall temperature gradient is decreased and as a consequence the local Nusselt number is decreased. The effects of Lewis number, Schmidt number, and modified diffusivity ratio on the volume fraction distribution are also studied and discussed.