Effects of tapered-channel design on thermal performance of microchannel heat sink

A channel with a height- or width-tapered variation is designed to improve the thermal performance of a microchannel heat sink (MCHS). To this end, a three-dimensional MCHS model is constructed to analyze the effects of the height- and width-tapered ratios on the thermal performance of the MCHS. The thermal resistance and temperature distribution are taken as the thermal performance indicators. Numerical predictions show that the relationship between the thermal resistance and the width-tapered ratio is not monotonic at the fixed pumping power. The thermal resistance first decreases and then increases. A similar behavior is also exhibited by the height-tapered ratio. However, the height-tapered ratio effects can be negligible. It is also found that the width-tapered-channel design has a lower and a relatively uniform temperature distribution compared to parallel or height-tapered channel design. Moreover, the MCHS with width-tapered channel design showed a maximum enhancement in thermal performance of around 16.7% over that of the parallel-channel design when the pumping power is larger than 0.4 W.     

Optimum thermal performance of microchannel heat sink by adjusting channel width and height

A three-dimensional numerical model of the microchannel heat sink is presented to study the effects of heat transfer characteristics due to various channel heights and widths. Based on the theory of a fully developed flow, the pressure drop in the microchannel is derived under the requirement of the flow power for a single channel. The effects of two design variables representing the channel width and height on the thermal resistance are investigated. In addition, the constraint of the same flow cross section is carried out to find the optimum dimension. Finally, the minimum thermal resistance and optimal channel width with various flow powers and channel heights are obtained by using the simulated annealing method.     

Performance enhancement of high temperature latent heat thermal storage systems using heat pipes with and without fins for concentrating solar thermal power plants

A key drawback of using latent heat thermal storage systems for concentrating solar thermal power plants is the low thermal conductivity of the phase change material during the melting and solidification processes. This paper investigates an approach for reducing the thermal resistance by utilising axially finned heat pipes. A numerical model simulating the phase change material melting and solidification processes has been developed. This paper also includes the models of the evaporation and condensation of the heat pipe working fluid. The results show that by adding four axial fins and including the evaporation and condensation, the overall thermal performance of the storage system is enhanced significantly compared to having bare heat pipes. After 3 h a total of 106% increase in energy storage is obtained during the charging process. The results also show that the combined effect of incorporating the evaporation/condensation process and adding the fins leads to a threefold increase in the heat storage during the first 3 h. During the discharge process, there was a 79% increase in energy discharged and also the combined effect of incorporating the evaporation/condensation as well as adding the fins results in an almost four fold increase in the heat extracted within the first 3 h. A parametric analysis has also been carried out to analyse the effect of the finned heat pipe parameters after incorporating evaporation and condensation of the heat pipe working fluid.     

Effect of tip clearance on the cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink

In this paper, the effect of tip clearance on the cooling performance of the microchannel heat sink is presented under the fixed pumping power condition. The thermal resistance of a microchannel heat sink is defined for evaluating its cooling performance. The effect of tip clearance is numerically investigated by increasing tip clearance from zero under the fixed pumping power condition. From the numerical results, the optimized tip clearance is determined, for which the thermal resistance has a minimum value. Finally, we show that the presence of tip clearance can improve the cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink when tip clearance is smaller than a channel width.     

Cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with nanofluids

In this paper, the cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with nanoparticle–fluid suspensions (“nanofluids”) is numerically investigated. By using a theoretical model of thermal conductivity of nanofluids that accounts for the fundamental role of Brownian motion, we investigate the temperature contours and thermal resistance of a microchannel heat sink with nanofluids such as 6 nm copper-in-water and 2 nm diamond-in-water. The results show that the cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with water-based nanofluids containing diamond (1 vol.%, 2 nm) at the fixed pumping power of 2.25 W is enhanced by about 10% compared with that of a microchannel heat sink with water. Nanofluids reduce both the thermal resistance and the temperature difference between the heated microchannel wall and the coolant. Finally, the potential of deploying a combined microchannel heat sink with nanofluids as the next generation cooling devices for removing ultra-high heat flux is shown.     

Analysis of microchannel heat sink performance using nanofluids

In this study, silicon microchannel heat sink performance using nanofluids as coolants was analyzed. The nanofluid was a mixture of pure water and nanoscale Cu particles with various volume fractions. The heat transfer and friction coefficients required in the analysis were based on theoretical models and experimental correlations. In the theoretical model, nanofluid was treated as a single-phase fluid. In the experimental correlation, thermal dispersion due to particle random motion was included. The microchannel heat sink performances for two specific geometries, one with W_ch = W_fin = 100 μm and L_ch = 300 μm, the other with W_ch = W_fin = 57 μm and L_ch = 365 μm, were examined. Because of the increased thermal conductivity and thermal dispersion effects, it was found that the performances were greatly improved for these two specific geometries when nanofluids were used as the coolants. In addition to heat transfer enhancement, the existence of nanoparticles in the fluid did not produce extra pressure drop because of small particle size and low particle volume fraction.     

Influence of channel shape on the thermal and hydraulic performance of microchannel heat sink

Microchannel heat sinks (MCHS) can be made with channels of various shapes. Their size and shape may have remarkable influence on the thermal and hydrodynamic performance of MCHS. In this paper, numerical simulations are carried out to solve the three-dimensional steady and conjugate heat transfer governing equations using the Finite-Volume Method (FVM) of a water flow MCHS to evaluate the effect of shape of channels on the performance of MCHS with the same cross-section. The effect of shape of the channels on MCHS performance is studied for different channel shapes such as zigzag, curvy, and step microchannels, and it is compared with straight and wavy channels. The MCHS performance is evaluated in terms of temperature profile, heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, friction factor, and wall shear stress. Results show that for the same cross-section of a MCHS, the temperature and the heat transfer coefficient of the zigzag MCHS is the least and greatest, respectively, among various channel shapes. The pressure drop penalty for all channel shapes is higher than the conventional straight MCHS. The zigzag MCHS has the highest value of pressure drop, friction factor, and wall shear stress followed by the curvy and step MCHS, respectively.     

Experimental investigation of thermal resistance of a heat sink with hexagonal fins

In the present work, the effects of the heights, widths of the hexagonal fins, streamwise and spanwise distances between fins and flow velocity on thermal resistance and pressure drop characteristics were investigated using Taguchi experimental design method. Also the temperature distribution within the selected pin fins was determined. Thermal resistance and dimensionless pressure drop were considered as performance statistics. L₁₈(2¹*3⁷) orthogonal array was selected as an experimental plan for the five parameters mentioned above. While the optimum parameters were determined, due to the goals (above aims) more than one being, the trade-off among goals was considered. First of all, each goal was optimized, separately. Then, all the goals were optimized together, considering the priority of the goals, and the optimum results were found to be fin width of 14 mm, fin height of 150 mm, spanwise distance between fins of 20 mm, streamwise distance between fins of 10 mm and flow velocity of 4 m/s.     

Effect of silver nano-fluid on pulsating heat pipe thermal performance

This paper presents preliminary experimental results on using copper tube having internal and external diameter with 2.4 mm and 3 mm, respectively, to carry out the experimental pulsating heat pipe. The working fluids include the silver nano-fluid water solution and pure water.In order to study and measure the efficiency, we compare with 20 nm silver nano-fluid at different concentration (100 ppm and 450 ppm) and various filled ratio (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, respectively), also applying with different heating power (5 W, 15 W, 25 W, 35 W, 45 W, 55 W, 65 W, 75 W, 85 W, respectively). According to the experimental result in the midterm value (i.e. 40%, 60%) of filled ratio shows better. In the majority 60% of efficiency is considered much better. The heat dissipation effect is analogous in sensible heat exchange, 60% has more liquid slugs that will turn and carry more sensible heat, so in 60% of filled ratio, heat dissipation result is better than 40%, and the best filled fluid is 100 ppm in silver nano-fluid.Finally, we observed through the measurement comparison in thermal performance with pure water. When the heating power is 85 W, the average temperature difference and the thermal resistance of evaporator and condenser are decreased by 7.79 °C and 0.092 °C/W, respectively.     

Optimum thermal design of microchannel heat sinks by the simulated annealing method

By adopting the simulated annealing method, a three-dimensional numerical simulation is executed to minimize the thermal resistance of the microchannel heat sink corresponding to the optimum specification under the fixed flow power. The depths of the microchannel heat sink in this study are fixed at either 1 cm or 2 cm. Based on the theory of the fully developed flow, the pressure drop between the inlet and exit in each single channel can be analytically derived if the flow power and the associated specification of the microchannel heat sink are fixed in advance. Then, this pressure drop will be used as the input condition to calculate the temperature distribution of the microchannel heat sink. For the first part of the optimum analysis, the fin width, and channel width are chosen as the design variables to find their optimum sizes. As to the second part of the present analysis, three design variables including channel height, fin width and channel width are individually prescribed as a suitable range to search for their optimum geometric configuration when the other specifications of the microchannel heat sink are fixed as 24 different cases.     

Theoretical and numerical analysis of convective heat transfer in the rotating helical pipes

In terms of the tensor analysis technique, the relative N-S equations and the energy equation in a rotating helical coordinate system are presented in this paper. Convective heat transfer in the rotating helical pipes with circular cross-section is investigated employing theoretical and numerical method. A perturbation solution up to the secondary order is obtained for a small Dean number. Variations of the temperature distribution with the force ratio (the ratio of the Coriolis force to the centrifugal force), the curvature and the torsion are discussed in detail. Present studies also show the natures of the Nusselt number, as well as the effects of the force ratio, the curvature, and the torsion. This study explores many new characteristics of convective heat transfer in the rotating helical pipes and covers wide ranges of parameters.     

Analysis and optimization of electrokinetic microchannel heat sink

A mixed (electroosmotic and pressure-driven) flow microchannel heat sink has been studied and optimized with the help of three-dimensional numerical analysis, surrogate methods, and the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. Two design variables; the ratio of the microchannel width-to-depth and the ratio of fin width-to-depth of the microchannel are selected as the design variables while design points are selected through a four-level full factorial design. The single-objective optimization is performed taking overall thermal resistance as the objective function and Radial Basis Neural Network as the surrogate model while for multi-objective optimization pumping power is considered as the objective function along with the thermal resistance. It is observed that the optimum design shifted towards the lower values of the ratio of the channel width-to-depth and the higher values of the ratio of fin width-to-depth of channel with increase of the driving source. The trade-off between the two conflicting objectives has been found and discussed in detail in light of the distribution of Pareto-optimal solutions in the design space. The ratio of channel width-to-depth is found to be higher Pareto-sensitive (sensitivity along the Pareto-optimal front) than the ratio of fin width-to-depth of the channel.     

Simultaneous measurement of thermal properties by thermal probe using stochastic approximation method

A novel thermal probe method is proposed for the simultaneous measurement of the thermal properties by the Monte Carlo stochastic approximation method. In this method, thermal capacity of probe and thermal contact resistance between probe and sample are considered. An experimental system is set up with the method to validate the measurement accuracy of the method. The thermal properties of several liquid samples as well as solid samples are measured. The results show that: (1) the thermal conductivity and the volumetric heat capacity can be measured with an error of less than 1.2% and 3% respectively, therefore, the measurement accuracy by the method is much higher than the conventional method and (2) the thermal contact resistance has a great effect on thermal conductivity for solid sample, while little influence on thermal conductivity for liquid sample and volumetric heat capacity.     

Heat transfer in rectangular microchannels heat sink using nanofluids

The effect of using nanofluids on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in rectangular shaped microchannel heat sink (MCHS) is numerically investigated for Reynolds number range of 100–1000. In this study, the MCHS performance using alumina–water (Al₂O₃-H₂O) nanofluid with volume fraction ranged from 1% to 5% was used as a coolant is examined. The three-dimensional steady, laminar flow and heat transfer governing equations are solved using finite volume method. The MCHS performance is evaluated in terms of temperature profile, heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop, friction factor, wall shear stress and thermal resistance. The results reveal that when the volume fraction of nanoparticles is increased under the extreme heat flux, both the heat transfer coefficient and wall shear stress are increased while the thermal resistance of the MCHS is decreased. However, nanofluid with volume fraction of 5% could not be able to enhance the heat transfer or performing almost the same result as pure water. Therefore, the presence of nanoparticles could enhance the cooling of MCHS under the extreme heat flux conditions with the optimum value of nanoparticles. Only a slight increase in the pressure drop across the MCHS is found compared with the pure water-cooled MCHS.     

Experimental investigation of silver nano-fluid on heat pipe thermal performance

Nano-fluid is employed as the working medium for a conventional 211 μm wide × 217 μm deep grooved circular heat pipe. The nano-fluid used in this study is an aqueous solution of 35 nm diameter silver nano-particles. The experiment was performed to measure the temperature distribution and to compare the heat pipe thermal resistance using nano-fluid and DI-water. The tested nano-particle concentrations ranged from 1 mg/l to 100 mg/l. The condenser section of the heat pipe was attached to a heat sink that was cooled by water supplied from a constant-temperature bath maintained at 40 °C.At a same charge volume, the measured nano-fluid filled heat pipe temperature distribution demonstrated that the thermal resistance decreased 10–80% compared to DI-water at an input power of 30–60 W. The measured results also show that the thermal resistances of the heat pipe decrease as the silver nano-particle size and concentration increase.     

3-D numerical and experimental models for flat and embedded heat pipes applied in high-end VGA card cooling system

The present study utilizes the three-dimension numerical and experimental methods to investigate the optimum thermal performance of a flat heat pipe-thermal module application in high-end VGA card cooling system, and compares that with a traditional copper metal based plate embedded three 6 mm diameter heat pipe-thermal module under three dissimilar inclination angles of 0°, 90° and 180°. The optimization for the thermal modules researches into various fin material, thickness and gap. Results show that the flat heat pipe-thermal module has the best thermal performance at high power GPU of 180 W and inclination angle of 180°. Simulation results show in good agreement with experimental results within 5%. Therefore, the thermal performance of a flat heat pipe-thermal module can be accurately simulated and analyzed by employed the manner introduced in this paper and is able to cope with the higher heat flux GPU over 62.5 W/cm² in the future.     

A new approach for thermal performance calculation of cross-flow heat exchangers

A new numerical methodology for thermal performance calculation in cross-flow heat exchangers is developed. Effectiveness-number of transfer units (ε-NTU) data for several standard and complex flow arrangements are obtained using this methodology. The results are validated through comparison with analytical solutions for one-pass cross-flow heat exchangers with one to four rows and with approximate series solution for an unmixed-unmixed heat exchanger, obtaining in all cases very small errors. New effectiveness data for some complex configurations are provided.     

Enhancement of thermal performance in double-layered microchannel heat sink with nanofluids

A three-dimensional analysis aimed at enhancing the thermal performance of a double-layered microchannel heat sink by using a nanofluid and varying the geometric parameters has been conducted. A system of fully elliptic equations that govern the flow and thermal fields are solved using the finite volume method. The analysis indicates that the dominant factors determining the thermal resistance of the channel include the type of nanofluid; particle volume fraction; geometric parameters of the channel, such as the channel number, channel width ratio, channel aspect ratio; and pumping power. The results indicate that the greatest enhancement in channel cooling can be expected when an Al₂O₃–water nanofluid is used. The thermal resistance of the channel can be minimized by properly adjusting the particle volume fraction under various pumping powers; the minimum thermal resistance depends on the geometric parameters. The study also reveals that the relationship between the thermal resistance and channel number, channel width ratio, or channel aspect ratio exhibits a decrease followed by an increase. The thermal performance of the channel can usually be improved by decreasing the channel number or channel aspect ratio, or increasing the channel width ratio. Finally, increasing the pumping power reduces the overall thermal resistance. An Al₂O₃ (1%)–water nanofluid shows an average improvement in thermal performance of 26% over that of pure water for a given pumping power. However, the design’s effectiveness declines significantly under high pumping power. In particular, the thermal resistance obtained by employing nanofluids was not necessarily lower than that of water under all pumping powers, but it can be reduced by properly adjusting the geometric parameters under optimal conditions.     

Effective pipe-to-borehole thermal resistance for vertical ground heat exchangers

The effective pipe-to-borehole thermal resistance of a vertical ground heat exchanger is investigated numerically. An analysis is carried out to determine the dimensionless geometrical parameters affecting such resistance. The heat transfer rates between the U-shaped pipes and the borehole are determined numerically and compared with some well-known limiting analytical solutions. A best-fit correlation for the effective pipe-to-borehole thermal resistance is presented in dimensionless form. The results are compared against approximate analytical solutions that represent the U-shaped pipes as a single pipe of equivalent diameter and against experimental data available in the literature. It is found that the available models do not accurately represent the effective pipe-to-borehole thermal resistance.     

Experimental investigation on thermal performance of thermosyphon flat-plate solar water heater with a mantle heat exchanger

The thermal performance of thermosyphon flat-plate solar water heater with a mantle heat exchanger was investigated to show its applicability in China. The effect on the performance of the collector of using a heat exchanger between the collector and the tank was analyzed. A “heat exchanger penalty factor” for the system was determined and energy balance equation in the system was presented. Outdoor tests of thermal performance of the thermosyphon flat-plate solar water heater with a mantle heat exchanger were taken in Kunming, China. Experimental results show that mean daily efficiency of the thermosyphon flat plate solar water heater with a mantle heat exchanger with 10 mm gap can reach up to 50%, which is lower than that of a thermosyphon flat-plate solar water heater without heat exchanger, but higher than that of a all-glass evacuated tubular solar water heater.