Employing elliptical pin-fins and nanofluid within a heat sink for cooling of electronic chips regarding energy efficiency perspective

Abstract

The two-phase investigation of a silver–water nanofluid flow within the elliptical pin-fin heat sink regarding different nanoparticle volume fractions, fin densities, and Reynolds numbers is performed aimed at enhancing the electronics cooling performance. Five volume fractions and four fin densities are considered. The mixture-based two-phase model is implemented for modeling the flow and heat transfer, while turbulent flow is modeled using the four-equation transition Shear Stress Transport (SST) model. Adding the nanoparticles into the base fluid has an appreciable positive effect on the heat transfer coefficient (h), surface temperature, thermal resistance, and temperature uniformity of the surface, such that the thermal resistance experiences a maximum reduction of 16.2% when the volume fraction elevates by 0.4% at fin density of 0.168 and Reynolds number of 2500, which results in a 25.5% enhancement in the h. Furthermore, the heat transfer coefficient significantly elevates when the fin density increases, whereby the maximum increment in the h is obtained around 49.6% by the increase of the density from 0.036 to 0.168 at volume fraction of 0.4% and Reynolds number of 2500. Moreover, the pumping power and figure of merit have ascending trends by the increment in the volume fraction or fin density.