Publication: Numerical study of heat transfer and flow characteristics of microchannel heat sink with staggered water droplet geometries using water and nanofluids
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Date
2024-02
Authors
Soo, Yan Hao
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Abstract
The rapid transition of electronic devices from low performing, low-speed systems to high performance systems with high computational speeds has led to the exponential hike in power density which poses a challenge for effective heat dissipation. To prevent thermal-induced damages in miniaturized electronic devices, the heat dissipation rate must be increased by incorporating heat exchangers with large surface area to volume ratio such as the microchannel heat sink (MCHS). This research sought to augment the thermohydraulic performance of a conventional MCHS using two different approaches: geometrical modification and flow parameter modification. Three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer analyses were conducted using state of the art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, ANSYS Fluent 2022, to assess the hydrothermal attributes of water and water-based nanofluids on an MCHS, employing staggered water-droplet geometries. The research focused on single phase laminar flow (Re<1000) through microchannels with hydraulic diameter (D_h) of 750 μm and aspect ratio of 1.5. The thermohydraulic performances of the MCHS were evaluated against different geometric parameters including groove aspect ratio, groove pitch, groove size, and geometry type. Apart from that, the impacts of the nanofluid properties (i.e., nanoparticle type and nanoparticle concentration) on the heat dissipation performance were also examined in the study. The geometrical modifications were found to induce a substantial enhancement in the thermal performance of the MCHS through the promotion of fluid mixing which intensified the thermal exchange between the solid and fluid domains. However, the pumping cost associated with such modifications were higher because of a higher pressure drop penalty. The employment of nanoparticles as fluid additives led to a substantial heat transfer increment, albeit with a higher pumping power requirement. With that being said, the implementation of nanofluids is preferable in comparison to plain water as the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages.