A Computational Fluid Dynamic Study on Efficiency of a Wavy Microchannel/Heat Sink Containing Various Nanoparticles

In this paper, a common and widely used micro-heat sink (H/S) was redesigned and simulated using computational fluid dynamics methods. This H/S has a large number of microchannels in which the walls are wavy (wavy microchannel heat sink: WMCHS). To improve cooling, two (Al2O3 and CuO) water-based nanofluids (NFs) were used as cooling fluids, and their performance was compared. For this purpose, studies were carried out at three Reynolds numbers (Re) of 500, 1000, and 1500 when the volume percent (f) of the nanoparticles (NPs) was increased to 2%. The mixture two-phase (T-P) model was utilized to simulate the NFs. Results showed that using the designed WMCHS compared to the common H/S reduces the average and maximum temperatures (T-Max) up to 2 degrees C. Moreover, using the Al2O3 NF is more suitable in terms of WMCHS temperature uniformity as well as its thermal resistance compared to the CuO NF. Increasing the f is desirable in terms of temperature, but it enhances the pumping power (PP). Besides, the Figure of Merit (FOM) was investigated, and it was found that the value is greater at a higher volume percentage.

Automated summary

This paper redesigns a common micro-heat sink and uses nanofluids as cooling fluids for simulation and comparison. Results show that the wavy microchannel heat sink design reduces temperatures, with Al2O3 nanofluid being more suitable for temperature uniformity and thermal resistance, while increasing nanoparticle volume percentage helps with temperature but also increases pumping power.