CFD investigation of nanofluid effects (cooling performance and pressure drop) in mini-channel heat sink

For improvement in information technology (IT), removing heat from electrical devices is an important factor, and current activities try to investigate (numerically, experimentally) new methods of thermal load managing. Mini-channel liquid cooling is one of the candidates for this purpose. Nanofluid as an innovative heat-transfer fluid was used in mini-channel heat sink. Modeling analyzed in this study is a mini-channel heat sink with 20 × 20 mm bottom. For this purpose, five nanoparticle volume fractions namely 0.8, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2 and 4% in five inlet velocities for both types of nanoparticle containing TiO2 and SiC were used. Furthermore, effect of a nanoparticle volume fraction on the convective heat transfer coefficient was investigated in different Reynolds numbers. Modeling results were compared with reference analytical calculations. In addition according to the modeling results, correlated equations were obtained for Nusselt number and friction factor, and its accuracies were acceptable.