Flow and heat transfer behavior of hybrid nanofluid through microchannel with two different channels

The current investigation compares the heat transfer and flow characteristics of an oblique finned microchannel heat sink (MCHS) having newly designed pentagonal, triangular cross-sections. The working fluids used are CuO/Water (0.3%), Al2O3/Water (0.3%) nanofluids and Al2O3-CuO/Water (0.3%) Hybrid nanofluid. The heat sink has a cross-sectional area of 80 x 48 mm(2) and the experimental study was carried out by varying the mass flow rate from 0.1 to 0.5 LPM with a constant heat flux of 50 kW/m(2). The experimental results revealed that the heat transfer rate and pressure drop for the pentagonal channel increased by 12.3% and 16.5% respectively when compared to the triangular channel heat sink using hybrid nanofluids which can be credited to the secondary flow generated in the oblique finned pentagonal microchannel heat sink. Also with hybrid nanofluid, the heat transfer rate enhanced by 4.2% and 5.5% with pentagonal microchannel heat sink when compared to Cuo/Water and Al2O3/Water nanofluids respectively. The Performance Evaluation Criterion for the pentagonal microchannel heat sink is found to be 21.12% higher than the triangular microchannel heat sink using hybrid nanofluid. The thermal resistance was found to be less and the pumping power required was found to be high for pentagonal channel heat sink with hybrid nanofluid when compared to other combinations.

Automated summary

The study compared the heat transfer performance of pentagonal and triangular channel oblique finned microchannel heat sinks using different nanofluids, with results showing that the pentagonal channel heat sink performed better in heat transfer and increased pressure drop when using hybrid nanofluid.