Performance of nanofluid flow in corrugated minichannels heat sink (CMCHS)

Firstly, a brief review of previous works on the nanofluid flow in the minichannels heat sink (MCHS) is carried out. Then, the corrugated minichannels heat sink (CMCHS) and Al2O3/water nanofluid are proposed aiming more compact equipment and efficient cooling. The effects of geometrical parameters, nanoparticles weight fraction, and flow rate are investigated. Experimental tests are performed in a precise close loop setup with the ability to produce a constant heat flux. The results show that the CMCHSs can improve the heat transfer performance, albeit with a penalty in the pressure drop compared with the straight MCHS. It is also found that both the heat transfer enhancement and the pressure drop penalty augment, as the wave-length decreases and wave-amplitude increases. However, in the studied ranges, the effect of wave-amplitude is more than that of wave-length. The base temperature and convective thermal resistance are found to drop by decreasing the wave-length and by increasing the wave amplitude. At a heater power of 50 W, the lowest base temperature of 30.5 degrees C is achieved by using a CMCHS of 20 mm wave-length and 2 mm wave-amplitude. It is detected that the thermal-hydraulic performance of CMCHSs improves, as the weight fraction of nanoparticles increases. Noticeable average performance factor of 2.68 is obtained for the simultaneous utilization of corrugated minichannels and Al2O3/water nanofluid inside the MCHS. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.