Enhancement of laminar convective heat transfer using microparticle suspensions

Abstract

This paper investigates the enhancement of convective heat transfer within a sub-millimetre diameter copper tube using Al2O3, Co3O4 and CuO microparticle suspensions. Experiments are conducted at different particle concentrations of 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 wt% and at various flow rates ranging from 250 to 1000 µl/min. Both experimental measurements and numerical analyses are employed to obtain the convective heat transfer coefficient. The results indicate a significant enhancement in convective heat transfer coefficient due to the implementation of microparticle suspensions. For the case of Al2O3 microparticle suspension with 5.0 wt% concentration, a 20.3 % enhancement in convective heat transfer coefficient is obtained over deionised water. This is comparable to the case of Al2O3 nanofluid at the same concentration. Hence, there is a potential for the microparticle suspensions to be used for cooling of compact integrated systems.