Abstract
In this paper the performance of a counter flow microchannel heat exchanger (CFMCHE) is numerically investigated with a nanofluid as a cooling medium. Two types of nanofluids are used Cu-water and Al2O3-water. From the results obtained it’s found that thermal performance of CFMCHE increased with using the nanofluids as cooling medium with no extra increase in pressure drop due to the ultra fine solid particles and low volume fraction concentrations. The na-nofluids (Cu-water and Al2O3-water) volume fractions were in the range 1% to 5%. It’s also found that nanoflu-id-cooled CFMCHE could absorb more heat than water-cooled CFMCHE when the flow rate was low. For high flow rates the heat transfer was dominated by the volume flow rate and nanoparticles did not contribute to the extra heat absorption. Also the performance of CFMCHE can be increased considerably by using nanofluids with higher thermal conductivities.
Highlights
One of the methods for enhancing heat transfer is the application of additives to the working fluid
The basic idea is to enhance heat transfer by changing the fluid transport properties such as in nanofluid where the solid particles added to the base fluid to increase its thermal conductivity
Tuckerman and Pease [1] introduced the idea of using microchannel heat sink (MCHS) for cooling of electronic devices in 1981
Summary
One of the methods for enhancing heat transfer is the application of additives to the working fluid. Joescon and Issam [12] performed experiments to explore the microchannel cooling benefits of Al2O3-water nanofluid They found that the high thermal conductivity of nano particles enhance the single phase heat transfer coefficient especially for laminar flow. Mushtaq et al [13] investigated numerically the effect of channels geometry (the size and shape of channels) on the performance of counter flow microchannel heat exchanger and used liquid water as a cooling fluid They found that with decreasing the size of channels both the effectiveness of heat exchanger and pressure drop were increased and they claimed that the decision of increaseing or decreasing the size of channels depends on the application in which this heat exchanger is used.
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