AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF NANOFLUIDS IN A MINICHANNEL HEAT SINK

Abstract

In the present work, experimental investigation has been undertaken to analyze the heat transfer performance of nanofluids used as alternate coolant to conventional fluid in a cooper minichannel heat sink. Al₂O₃-water, Al₂O₃-ethylene glycol,TiO₂-ethylene glycol,MgO-water and ZnO-water nanofluids were used to evaluate their comparative thermal performances. The copper minichannel heat sink 30mmx30mmx4mm consists of seven parallel minichannels of length 30mm with a cross section area of 2mm in width and of channel height 2mm for each channel was used in this investigation. Nanofluids as coolant were tested at different volume concentration ranging from 0.5% to 2.5% was passed through the minichannel heat sink attached with a heat source. The results showed that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids enhanced significantly by increasing the volume concentration of nanoparticles in the base fluid. From the comparative results, the Al₂O₃-water nanofluid cooled heat sink showed better heat transfer and hence outperforms the other nanofluids. This nanofluid can be recommended for electronic cooling system as an alternate coolant to conventional fluid.