Convective heat transfer of nano-encapsulated phase change material suspension in a divergent minichannel heatsink

Abstract

The convection heat transfer of nano-encapsulated phase change material (NEPCM)-water suspensions in a divergent minichannel heatsink was experimentally investigated. The mini heatsink was made of eight minichannels with a divergent angle of 1.38°. The minichannel was heated at the bottom, and the NEPCM-water was used as the cooling working fluid. The average Nusselt number, the index of performance, and the pressure drop of NEPCM-water compared to the pure water were examined. The experiments show that employing NEPCMs could be advantageous in low Reynolds number flows and low heating powers. The phase change heat transfer of NEPCM particles promoted the heat transfer by 82% compared to pure water. Moreover, using the NEPCM particles was not advantageous at large Reynolds numbers, where the sensible heat was the dominant mechanism of heat transfer.