Experimental investigation of a microchannel heat sink performance using aqueous carbon nanotubes based nanofluid

Abdullah Arslan (1) , Salma Halelfadl (2) , Thierry Maré (2) , Patrice Estellé (2) , Nimeti Doner (3) , Normah Mohd-Ghazali (4)

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dumlupinar University
2 LGCGM - Laboratoire de Génie Civil et Génie Mécanique
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dumlupinar University
4 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Most experimental studies on microchannels used water or a refrigerant as a coolant fluid. Due to their high thermal conductivity, nanofluids seem to be a promising fluid for heat transfer enhancement in such systems. In this study, the microchannel heat sink performance with carbon nanotube water-based nanofluid as coolant is experimentally investigated. The nanofluid is composed of carbon nanotubes dispersed in water as a base fluid and stabilized by a surfactant. The weight concentration of the nanotubes within the nanofluid is 0.01%. The density, viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluid are measured experimentally for the temperature range from 20 to 40°C. The copper microchannel heat sink consists of 49 parallel rectangular channels of 30 mm in length, 300 μm in width and 2.5 mm in height for each microchannel. Flow rates, pressures and temperatures are measured and heat balances are compared with those of water for multiple flows. Hydraulic and thermal performances have been assessed in terms of the pressure drop, average heat transfer and thermal resistance.

Domaines: Thermique [physics.class-ph]; Thermique [physics.class-ph]

Abdullah Arslan, Salma Halelfadl, Thierry Maré, Patrice Estellé, Nimeti Doner, et al.. Experimental investigation of a microchannel heat sink performance using aqueous carbon nanotubes based nanofluid. International Conference on Applied Energy ICAE 2013, Jul 2013, Pretoria, South Africa. pp.ICAE2013-119. ⟨hal-00995726⟩