Cooling performance of a nanofluid flow in a heat sink microchannel with axial conduction effect

• Published in: Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing Vol. 117; no. 4; pp. 1821 - 1833
• Main Authors: Izadi, M., Shahmardan, M. M., Norouzi, M., Rashidi, A. M., Behzadmehr, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2014
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Computational fluid dynamics; Condensed Matter Physics; Fluid flow; Heat transfer; Hydrodynamics; Machines; Manufacturing; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Nanofluids; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Processes; Reynolds number; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Constant Heat Flux; Heat Flux; Fluid Interface; Heat Transfer Coefficient; Local Heat Transfer Coefficient
• ISSN: 0947-8396; 1432-0630
• DOI: 10.1007/s00339-014-8760-1

In this work, the forced convection of a nanofluid flow in a microscale duct has been investigated numerically. The governing equations have been solved utilizing the finite volume method. Two different conjugated domains for both flow field and substrate have been considered in order to solve the hydrodynamic and thermal fields. The results of the present study are compared to those of analytical and experimental ones, and a good agreement has been observed. The effects of Reynolds number, thermal conductivity and thickness of substrate on the thermal and hydrodynamic indexes have been studied. In general, considering the wall affected the thermal parameter while it had no impact on the hydrodynamics behavior. The results show that the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on the increasing of normalized local heat transfer coefficient is more efficient in thick walls. For higher Reynolds number, the effect of nanoparticle inclusion on axial distribution of heat flux at solid–fluid interface declines. Also, less end losses and further uniformity of axial heat flux lead to an increase in the local normalized heat transfer coefficient.