Numerical investigation of thermo-hydrodynamic performance of triangular pin fin heat sink using nano-fluids

Abstract

Cooling of miniaturized electronic components is of greater need to enhance the reliability, performance and life of the electronic component. Miniaturized devices with fins is an advanced cooling method used to maintain the surface temperature of the component by providing additional surface area for heat dissipation, Different geometries of extended surfaces and different cooling fluids are studied to enhance the thermal- hydro performance. This paper presents a numerical study of flow and heat transfer characteristics of three- dimensional heat sink with triangular pin fin using water and ethylene glycol (EG) as base fluid. Later the base fluid mixed with diamond powder (DM), aluminum oxide powder (Al2O3) and copper powder (Cu) nanoparticles with 2% and 4% volume concentration is considered. The study is carried out for Reynolds number ranging 100–900 subjected to constant heat flux 10 W/cm2. A non-dimensional parameter thermal performance index is used to access the heat transfer characteristics of a heat sink. Results indicate heat dissipation rate of the finned heat sink was enhanced employing nanofluids, however, the performance index of nanofluids was slightly affected compared to base fluids. Pressure drop for water-based copper nanoparticles for 4% volume concentration is 9.4% greater compared to pure water. The heat dissipation rate enhances by 20.31% for ethylene glycol-based nanofluids and by 6.54% for water-based nanofluids. The conservative equations for fluid and solid domain are solved using FLUENT 16.2.