Three‐dimensional computational comparison of mini‐pinned heat sinks using different nanofluids: Part two—energy and exergy characteristics

The energy and exergy characteristics of 3D‐pinned heat sink (HS) designs have been computationally compared as the second part of a three‐part investigation. Different pin profiles, such as circular, square, triangular, strip and elliptic pins, and without pin HS are conducted with three different types of nanofluids—Al₂O₃‐water, SiO₂‐water, and CuO‐water for laminar forced convection. The concentrations of nanofluids vary from 0 to 5 vol% with different Reynolds numbers ranging between 100 and 1000. The finite volume method employing the SIMPLE algorithm for a computational solution is applied to solve the Navier–Stokes and energy equations. Four criterions studies are explained—energy efficiency, exergy loss, and exergy efficiency of HSs with pressure drop. The results showed that the highest energy and exergy efficiencies are nearly 76% and 57%, respectively, for elliptic‐pinned HSs using pure water, while about 82% and 62% using 5 vol% of SiO₂‐water nanofluids. Besides, the elliptic‐pinned HSs have a favorable reduction in the exergy loss, nearly 17% using 5 vol% of SiO₂‐water nanofluids. Subsequently, the elliptic‐pinned HS is recommended to apply with pure water considering the development in pressure drop required. However, the elliptic‐pinned HSs could be employed with 5 vol% of SiO₂‐water nanofluids regardless of the development in pressure drop required for thermal energy dissipation applications with more exergy efficiency and reduction of exergy loss.     

The hydraulic‐thermal performance of miniature compact heat sinks using SiO2‐water nanofluids

Ever since the rapid increase in both the demand for the miniature electronic devices and their applications, heat dissipation in the electronic components has been a serious issue. A miniature plate‐pin heat sink model with square, circular, and elliptic pins is considered to enhance the hydrothermal performance of this kind of compact heat sink (CHS). Water and 3% of SiO₂‐water nanofluids of volume fraction were used with different Reynolds number ranges (100‐1000). The findings show that the base temperature of heat sink reduces while the Nusselt number enhances by using nanofluids and increasing Reynolds number. The lowest value of the base temperature is nearly 25% for the square pins and circular pins CHSs compared with a plate–fin heat sink at 3% of nanofluids. Furthermore, the highest value of the Nusselt number is about 98% at 3% SiO₂ for circular pin CHSs compared with the plate–fin heat sink. However, the pressure drop of CHSs is higher than that of plate–fin heat sink. Moreover, the most significant hydrothermal performance value is about 1.44 for water and around 1.51 for SiO₂ as using the CHS with circular and elliptic pins depends on the Reynolds number. Thus, applying CHSs with nanofluids instead of the traditional heat sinks might produce a substantial enhancement in the hydrothermal performance of heat sinks.     

Exergo‐economic analysis of micro pin fin heat sinks

A parametric study of thermoeconomic performance over four micro pin fin heat sinks of different spacing and shapes was conducted. Unit cost per product exergy, relative cost difference, and exergo‐economic factor were utilized to evaluate the thermoeconomic performance. The effect of working fluid on the thermoeconomic performance was also investigated using R‐123 and water as working fluids. Unit costs per product exergy were obtained to evaluate the product costs (total exergy change between exit and inlet streams) in micro pin fin heat sinks at fixed mass flow rate and fixed pressure drop. The results of the thermoeconomic analysis were compared with the results of a past exergy performance study by the author. In the light of raw experimental data acquired from the past studies of the author, important differences between the results of exergy and exergo‐economic performances were observed. It was found that the unit cost of exergy change decreased as electrical power increased and the relative cost difference approached to unity at high electrical powers (greater than 20 W). Moreover, high exergo‐economic factor values (more than 0.5) were obtained at low electrical powers while exergo‐economic factors had a small value at high electrical powers. When looking at the effect of the working fluid, higher cost per Watts of the products (up to the double of R‐123) was obtained with water compared with R‐123 at both fixed mass flow rate and pressure drop. No significant effect of pin fin spacing on the unit cost of exergy change was observed at fixed mass flow rate, while higher unit costs (up to 102%) were recorded at fixed pressure drop for scarcely packed pin fin heat sinks. Finally, the unit cost of exergy change was found to be independent of pin fin shape at fixed mass flow rate, whereas at fixed pressure drop, the hydrofoil‐based pin fin heat sink had higher unit costs (up to 1.8 times as much) when compared with the unit costs of pin fin heat sinks having flow separation promoting pin fins. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of the flow field,thermal performance,and heat transfer augmentation in circular tube using different dimple geometrical configurations with internal twisted-tape insert

In this study, a numerical investigation for the fluid flow field analysis using different configuration dimple parameters in conjunction with an internal type insert in pipe is carried out. The effects of the dimple diameters with a center twisted tape on the flow pattern, pressure drop, friction factor, and heat transfer characteristics are investigated. The influence of the latter device on heat performance and thermal-hydraulic performance evaluation factor (PEF) were carried out in a pipe for fully developed flow with range for fully developed flow with range of Reynolds number (Re) of 1573 and 23 592. Experiments with numerical models are performed using different dimpled dimeters by inserting twisted tapes. The outcomes observe that the qualitative analysis for flow fields such as static pressure, dynamic pressure, velocity magnitude, wall shear stress, and turbulent kinetic energy as well as the quantities analysis for pressure drop, heat transfer coefficient friction factor, and Nu number in dimpled pipe fitted with twisted tape are greater than plain pipe. This is because using these devices cause more secondary flow, swirl flow, and flow mixing that lead to higher turbulence, which, in turn, enhance the overall heat transfer. The results indicated that the lower and higher values of thermal PEF are about 0.78 and 1.6, respectively, at the dimple dimmers of 1 mm.     

Analytical approach with Laplace transform to the inverse problem of one‐dimensional heat conduction transfer: Application to second and third boundary conditions

An analytical method using Laplace transformation has been developed for one‐dimensional heat conduction. This method succeeded in explicitly deriving the analytical solution by which the surface temperature for the first kind of boundary condition can be well predicted. The analytical solutions for the surface temperature and heat flux are applied to the second and third of the boundary conditions. These solutions are also found to estimate the corresponding surface conditions with a high degree of accuracy when the surface conditions smoothly change. On the other hand, when these conditions erratically change such as the first derivative of temperature with time, the accuracy of the estimation becomes slightly less than that for a smooth condition. This trend in the estimation is similar irrespective of any kind of boundary condition. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 32(1): 29–41, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.10069     

Determination of the enthalpy of PCM as a function of temperature using a heat‐flux DSC—A study of different measurement procedures and their accuracy

Thermal energy storage by latent heat allows storing high amounts of energy working in narrow margins of temperature. The use of phase change material (PCM) for the latent heat storage has been studied in different applications and it has been commercialized in containers to transport blood, products sensible to temperature, to decrease their energy demand. The use of PCM in cooling and refrigeration has been attracting a lot of interest lately, but for all applications, the properties of these materials need to be known with sufficient accuracy. Regarding heat storage, it is necessary to know the enthalpy as a function of temperature. The most widely used calorimeter is the heat‐flux differential scanning calorimetry (hf‐DSC). The objective of this study is to investigate different methods for hf‐DSC analysis, namely the dynamic method and the step method, and to test their accuracy in the determination of enthalpy–temperature relationship of PCM. For the dynamic method, a strong influence of heating/cooling rate was observed. For the step method, the resulting enthalpy–temperature relationship is independent of heating/cooling rate. Commercial PCM RT27 was chosen as sample material to avoid subcooling and kinetic effects in the test measurements. The approach introduced in this study can be used to carry out similar investigations for other classes of PCM and/or other DSC instruments. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.