Electronic chipset thermal management using a nanofluid-based mini-channel heat sink: An experimental study

Abstract

Development in electronic equipment comes with a serious challenge to provide efficient thermal management methods for lifetime and performance improvement. In this study, the cooling of an electronic chipset (EC) with the aid of a nanofluid-based mini-channel heat sink was studied. The effects of varying heat flux, nanofluid mass fraction, and coolant flow rate within a range of (6000:10000 W/m2), (0:1%), and (100:300 ml/min), respectively, were examined. Several important parameters, like transient EC temperature, thermal resistance, and energy efficiency were investigated. Experimental data disclosed that at an applied heat flux of 6000 W/m2 and a flow rate of 100 ml/min, the maximum EC temperature was obtained to be 48.6 °C. By increasing the coolant flow rate to 150 and 200 ml/min, this temperature decreased by 1.3 and 2.3 °C, respectively. The results indicated that the thermal efficiency (ηth) of the liquid-based module using pure water, SiC/water 0.5 and 1% wt. at flow rate of 100 (200 ml/min) became 33.8 (50.7%), 37.9 (55.5%), and 40.4 (58.1%), respectively. The average thermal resistance (R¯th) reduction was found to be 14.81, 19.64, and 21.21% using water-based heat sink with flow rate of 200 ml/min compared to 100 ml/min in the cases of 6000, 8000, and 10,000 W/m2, respectively.