Simulation of Alumina/Water Nanofluid Flow in a Micro-Heatsink With Wavy Microchannels: Impact of Two-Phase and Single-Phase Nanofluid Models

Abstract

In this article, alumina/water nanofluid (NF) flow in a heatsink (H-S) with wavy microchannels (W-MCs) is simulated. The H-S is made of aluminum containing four similar parts. Each part has an inlet and outlet. Constant heat flux is applied on the bottom of the H-S. The study is based on two-phase (T-P) mixture and single-phase (S-P) models to determine the difference between these two types of simulations. FLUENT software and the control volume method were used for simulations. The volume control method is employed to solve equations. The effective variables include the volume fraction 0 < φ < 5% of alumina and Reynolds number (Re) 300 < Re < 1800. The maximum H-S bottom temperature, the required amount of pumping power (PP), the temperature uniformity, and the heat resistance of the H-S are the outputs studied to simulate the S-P and T-P models. The results show that the use of the T-P model has less error in comparison with the experimental data than the S-P model. An increment in the Re and φ reduces the maximum temperature (M-T) of the H-S. The S-P model, especially at a higher value of φ, leads to a lower M-T value than the T-P model. The S-P model shows a 0.5% greater decrease than the T-P model at the Reynolds number of 300 by enhancing the volume percentage of nanoparticles (NPs) from 1 to 5%. Temperature uniformity is improved with Re and φ. The reduction of H-S thermal resistance with Re and φ is the result of this study. Adding NPs to water, especially at higher amounts of φ, enhances the required PP. The T-P model predicts higher PP than the S-P one, especially at a high value of φ. The T-P model shows 4% more PP than the S-P model at Re = 30 and a volume fraction of 4%.