Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Investigation of flow and heat transfer characteristics in micro pin fin

heat sink with nanofluid
Mushtaq Ismael Hasan*
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Thi-Qar University, Iraq

h i g h l i g h t s

I studied the effect of using nanofluid in micro pin fin heat sink.

Two nanofluids have been studied (diamond-water and Al2O3-water).

Three fins shapes (square, triangular and circular) and unfinned heat sink.

Results show that nanofluid increase the thermal performance and pressure drop.

The circular fins give higher heat transfer rate compared with other fins.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper a micro pin fin heat sink is numerically investigated with three fins geometries (square,
Received 21 April 2013 triangular and circular) in addition to the unfinned microchannel heat sink. Nanofluid is used as a cooling
Accepted 26 November 2013 fluid, since the flow and heat transfer have been studied with two types of nanofluids (Diamond-water
Available online 6 December 2013
and Al2O3-water) in addition to the pure water. The volumetric concentration of selected nanofluids has
been chosen in range (1e4)%. The comparison of hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics of different
Keywords:
fin geometries and cooling fluids has been made under the same value of Reynolds number and constant
Micro pin fin heat sink
wall temperature thermal boundary condition, the range of Re used is (100e900) to ensure that, the flow
Fin geometry
Nanofluid
remains in the laminar regime. The results obtained indicated that, using of nanofluid instead of pure
Numerical investigation fluid as a coolant leads to enhanced heat transfer performance by increasing the amount of heat dissi-
pated but it also leads to increased pressure drop for all fins shapes and nanofluids studied.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The development of modern electronic devices production has
necessitated to find an effective solutions which are capable of
dissipating high heat flux from the microelectronic systems to
ensure stable and optimum operation. Many novel cooling tech-
niques have been studied and designed to fulfill this demand, such
as microchannel heat sink with different designs in addition to
different types of cooling fluids.
To overcome the ever-increasing heat removal rate, new and
efficient approaches have to be explored. Microchannel heat sinks
due to their small mass and volume as well as larger area to volume
ratio are very attractive for cooling of high heat flux chips. To
improve the cooling performance and temperature uniformity of
these devices, many new innovative ideas have been proposed such
* Tel.: þ96 47810993272.
E-mail addresses: mushtaq76h@yahoo.com, mushtaq76h@gmail.com.
as using pin fins with different shapes and different arrangements.
Fins as an extended surfaces play an important role in enhancing
heat transfer process by increasing the area of heat transfer.
In order to further enhance micro heat sink performance, the
nanofluids is used. Nanofluid is a kind of fluid containing small
quantity of nano-sized particles (usually less than 100 nm) that are
uniformly and stably suspended in a liquid. The dispersion of a
small amount of solid nanoparticles in conventional fluids changes
their thermal conductivity remarkably.
There are many researches in literature made to study the micro
pin fin heat sink with different fins profiles and configurations and
to study the flow and heat transfer in nanofluids.
Soodphakdee et al. (2001) [1] studied the heat transfer perfor-
mance of heat sink with commonly used fin geometries (round,
elliptical and square) also the plate fins in staggered and inline
arrangement. They found that, in all cases, staggered geometries
perform better than inline, also at lower values of pressure drop
and pumping power, elliptical fins work best. At higher values,
round pin fin offer highest performance. Ricci and Montelpare

1359-4311/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2013.11.059
 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607 599

Nomenclature y vertical coordinate (m)

Z horizontal coordinate (m)
c volumetric concentration of nanofluid DP pressure drop across heat sink (Pa)
Cp specific heat (J/kg K)
Dh hydraulic diameter (m) Greek symbols
k thermal conductivity (W/m K) r density (kg/m3)
:
m mass flow rate (kg/s) m dynamic viscosity (m2/s)
P total pressure (Pa) j sphericity
q heat transfer rate (W)
SH solid particle shape factor Subscripts
Re Reynolds number f fin
T temperature (K) HS heat sink
u fluid x-component velocity (m/s) i inlet
v fluid y-component velocity (m/s) o outlet
V velocity vector pf pure fluid
w fluid z-component velocity (m/s) nf nanofluid
W width (m) p particle
x axial coordinate (m)

(2005) [2] Experimentally investigated the pin fin heat sink with
fins in different shapes (circular, square, triangular and rhomboidal)
arranged inline with constant heat flux boundary condition. They
found that, the triangular geometry is on an average the best with
respect to the others. Shaeri and Yaghoubi (2009) [3] numerically
investigated the fluid flow and heat transfer from an array of solid
and perforated fins that are mounted on a flat plate with incom-
pressible air as working fluid. Results show that, fins with longi-
tudinal pore, have remarkable heat transfer enhancement in
addition to the considerable reduction in weight by comparison
with solid fins. Liu et al. (2011) [4] experimentally studied the flow
and heat transfer in micro square pin fin heat sink with staggered
arrangement, using water as coolant, the Reynolds number selected
ranging from 60 to 800. They found that, both the Nusselt number
and pressure drop increased with Re and the heat resistance
decreased with the pressure drop. Mohammed et al. (2011) [5]
discussed the impact of using various types of nanofluids on heat
transfer and fluid flow characteristics in triangular shaped micro-
channel heat sink. The nanofluids used are Al2O3, Ag, CuO, Dia-
mond, SiO2 and TiO2 all with water as base fluid. It is inferred that
Diamond-H2O nanofluid has the lowest temperature and the
highest heat transfer coefficient. While Ag-H2O has the lowest
pressure drop and wall shear stress. Therefore Diamond-H2O and
Ag-H2O nanofluids are recommended to achieve overall heat
transfer enhancement and low pressure drop respectively
compared with pure water. Hung et al. (2012) [6] investigated
numerically the heat transfer in microchannel heat sink using many
types of nanofluids. The results show that the best heat transfer
enhancement can be obtained by using Al2O3-water nanofluid. The
heat transfer performance of Al2O3-water and Diamond-water
nanofluids was 21.6% better than that of pure water. Ho and Chen
(2013) [7] experimentally investigated the forced convective heat
transfer performance of using Al2O3-water nanofluid to replace the
pure water as the coolant in a copper minichannel heat sink. With
the Reynolds number ranging from 133 to 1515. Compared with the
results for the pure water, it was found that the nanofluid cooled
heat sink has significantly higher average heat transfer coefficients
and hence outperforms the water cooled heat sink. Naphon and
Nakharintr (2013) [8] studied the heat transfer characteristics of
nanofluids cooling in the mini-rectangular heat sink. The nanofluid
used is Tio2-water. They found that average heat transfer rates for
nanofluids as a coolant are higher than those for water.
Most of the studies in literature made to investigate heat
transfer and flow characteristics in pin fin heat sink with pure fluids
and as the author knowledge there are no researches available in
which the nanofluid used as a coolant in mini and micro pin fin heat
sink. In this paper two types of nanofluids were used as a coolant in
micro pin fin heat sink and the effect of using these nanofluids
instead of pure water on the thermal and hydrodynamic perfor-
mance of pin fin heat sink is numerically investigated.
2. Problem description
The model studied in this paper is 3D micro pin fin heat sink
consists of 50 fins with three shapes (square, circular and trian-
gular) fins. The length of heat sink is 16 mm and its width and
height are 6 mm and 1 mm respectively. All fins have same height
0.5 mm and base dimensions Wf ¼ Df ¼ 0.5 mm. Fig. 1 show the
physical model represent the studied micro pin fin heat sink with
three geometries of fins in addition to the unfinned heat sink. Fig. 2
show the description of fins geometries. The fins are arranged in
staggered configuration which is better than inline configuration
from the heat transfer point of view as it used by many references
such as [1,9], the values of fins spacing are sx ¼ 0.5 mm and
sz ¼ 0.5 mm. Fig. 3 shows the staggered arrangement used in this
paper.
3. Mathematical formulation
For modeling, nanofluid is treated as a single e phase fluid. This
assumption can be applicable since the particles are ultra fine and
they are easily fluidized [10,11]. Moreover, the particle volume
fraction in nanofluid is usually low. Under such assumptions the
governing equations for the nanofluid flow and heat transfer are
greatly simplified and local fluid and particles are in thermal
equilibrium.
For steady state, 3-D, incompressible and laminar flow the
following equations are solved to calculate the distributions of
velocity and temperature [12]:
Continuity equation:
VV ¼ 0 (1)
Momentum equation:
rðVVVÞ ¼ VP þ VðmVVÞ (2)
Energy equation:
600 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607

Outlet Outlet

Inlet Inlet
yz yz
x x

a-Unfinned heat sink b- with square fins

Outlet Outlet

Inlet Inlet
yz yz
x x

c- with circular fins d- with triangular fins

Fig. 1. Schematic of micro pin fin heat sink with (square, circular and triangular) fins and unfinned heat sink.

rCp ðVVTÞ ¼ kV2 T (3) The other outer surfaces of the model (right, left and top walls)
are assumed adiabatic walls:
The boundary conditions used to complete the model are: vT vT
At the inlet the finite values of velocity and temperature were ¼ ¼ 0
vx vy
used
The inlet velocity is calculated based on Reynolds number.
T ¼ 293 K; w ¼ win ; u ¼ v ¼ 0
r wi Dh
Re ¼ (4)
At the outlet the flow assumed to be fully developed: m

vw vT where Dh is the hydraulic diameter.

¼ v ¼ u ¼ 0; ¼ 0 The heat transfer rate is the amount of heat removed by heat
vx vx
sink:
At the lower surface of the heat sink the constant wall tem-
:
perature boundary condition is used (T ¼ 373 K). q ¼ mCpDT (5)
And the pressure drop is the difference between the total
pressure at the inlet and outlet.
Df

Hf 4. Properties of nanofluids
Hf Hf
wf
There are many parameters that affect the thermo physical
wf wf wf properties of the nanofluids such as, the properties of the base fluid,
wf the solid particles, volume fraction of the solid particles in the
suspension and particles shape. The properties of nanofluids can be
Fig. 2. Fins geometries studied (square, circular and triangular). calculated using the following relations [13,14]:
 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607 601

Table 2
Outflow Thermo-physical properties of the (Al2O3-water) nanofluid.

Material r kg/m3 Cp J/kg K k W/m K m kg/m s

2sz Pure water (c ¼ 0%) 981.3 4189 0.643 0.000598

Al2O3 3600 765 36 e
Al2O3-water (c ¼ 1%) 1007.4 4154.7 0.661 0.000612
Al2O3-water (c ¼ 2%) 1033.6 4120.5 0.68 0.000627
Al2O3-water (c ¼ 3%) 1059.8 4086.2 0.699 0.000642
Al2O3-water (c ¼ 4%) 1086 4052 0.719 0.000657

LHS

Fig. 4. Section in numerical mesh for square fins heat sink.

W
s
sx sx zs
x sx sx 2sx
HS
where: SH is solid particle shape factor.
2sz
3
SH ¼ (10)
j
WHS
Inflow j is sphericity defined as the ratio of the surface area of a sphere
z with a volume equal to that of the particle to the surface area of the
x particle. For spherical particles SH ¼ 3. kf, knf, kp are thermal con-
ductivities of the base fluid, nanofluid and solid particles
Fig. 3. Staggered arrangement for fins (square fins). respectively.
In this paper two nanofluids were used. Water is the base fluid
Thermal conductivity: used for both of them and the solid particles are diamond for the
  first nanofluid and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) for the second. So the
knf kp þ ðSH  1Þkf  ðSH  1Þc kf  kp two nanofluids used are (Diamond-water) and (Al2O3-water) and
¼   (6) the volume fraction used are (1e4)%.
kf kp þ ðSH  1Þk þ c k  kp f f The properties of two nanofluids used (Diamond-water) and
(Al2O3-water) are listed in Tables (1) and (2) below [5,6,15]:
Viscosity:

mnf 5. Numerical solution

¼ 1 þ 2:5c (7)
mf
Density: The above system of governing equations and boundary condi-
tions are numerically solved using finite volume method. The flow
rnf ¼ crp þ ð1  cÞrf (8) is developing and the 3D continuity and 3D Navier stock equations
are solved.
Specific heat: A finite volume method (FVM) was used to convert governing
equations to algebraic equations accomplished using an “upwind”
Cpnf ¼ cCpp þ ð1  cÞCpf (9)
scheme. The SIMPLE algorithm is used to enforce mass conserva-
tion and to solve the problem of velocityepressure coupling to
obtain the pressure field [16,17]. The segregated solver was used to
Table 1
Thermo-physical properties of the (Diamondewater) nanofluid.
Table 3
Material r kg/m3 Cp J/kg K k W/m K m kg/m s Grid independent study.
Pure water (c ¼ 0%) 981.3 4189 0.643 0.000598
Mesh size Outlet temperature (K)
Diamond 3510 497.26 1000 e
Diamond-water (c ¼ 1%) 1006 4152 0.662 0.000612 Mesh1 (interval size ¼ 0.0003) 406.02
Diamond-water (c ¼ 2%) 1031.8 4115.1 0.682 0.000627 Mesh2 (interval size ¼ 0.0002) 396.9
Diamond-water (c ¼ 3%) 1057.1 4078.2 0.702 0.000642 Mesh3 (interval size ¼ 0.0001) 392.7
Diamond-water (c ¼ 4%) 1082.4 4041.3 0.723 0.000657 Mesh4 (interval size ¼ 0.000092) 392.4
602 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607

Fig. 5. Comparison between results of present model and that for [18] for thermal resistance (Fig. 5a) and pressure drop (Fig. 5b).

solve the governing integral equations for the conservation of mass,
momentum and energy.
A mesh has been chosen in accepted size since a mesh refine-
ment has been made to find out the appropriate mesh size that
gives highly accurate solution. Fig. 4 indicates a section in the used
mesh for micro heat sink with micro square pin fins.
Table 3 shows that the solution becomes independent of grid
size and from third mesh further increase in the grids will not have
a significant effect on the solution and results of such arrangement
are acceptable. Therefore and to gate maximum accuracy the forth
mesh size is used for all calculations for all fins geometries.
The convergence criteria used to control the numerical solution
for both momentum and energy equations is 106.
The material of heat sink is Aluminum with properties, thermal
conductivity of 273 (W/m2 K), Specific heat constant 871 (J/kg K)
and density 2719 (kg/m3).
6. Results and discussion
First the model was solved with pure water as a cooling fluid
with constant properties selected according to the mean temper-
ature across heat sink. Then the solution was repeated for nano-
fluids in heat sink with selected fins shapes.
To check the validity of the built numerical model, verification
was made by solving the numerical model presented in Ref. [18]
and the results were compared. The model presented in Ref. [18]

Fig. 6. Velocity contour at longitudinal plan for different fins profiles and pure water (Re ¼ 100).
 Fig. 7. Temperature contour at longitudinal plan for different fins profiles and pure water (Re ¼ 100).
21
Pure water 36 Pure water
20
Diamond-water Diamond-water
19 34
Al2O3-water Al2O3-water

18 32
17
30
16
Temp. Difference (c)

Temp. Difference (c)

28
15
26
14

13 24

12 22
11
20
10
18
9
16
8

7 14

6 12

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Re Re
a-Unfinned heat sink b- With square fins
38
34 Pure water
Pure water
Diamond-water 36
Diamond-water
32 Al2O3-water

34 Al2O3-water

30
32
28
30
Temp. Difference (c)

Temp. Difference (c)

26
28
24
26

22 24

20 22

18 20

16 18

14 16

12 14

12
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Re Re
c- With triangular fins d- With circular fins
Fig. 8. Variation of Temperature difference with Re for different fins profiles and different nanofluids.
604 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607

55 110
Pure water 105 Pure water
Diamond-water Diamond-water
50 100
Al2O3-water Al2O3-water
95

45 90
85

Heat transfer rate (W)

Heat transfer rate (w)

80
40
75
70
35
65
60
30
55
50
25
45
40
20 35
30
15 25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Re
Re
a-Unfinned heat sink b- With square fins
100 115
Pure water 110 Pure water
95
Diamond-water Diamond-water
105
90 Al2O3-water Al2O3-water
100
85
95
80 90
Heat transfer rate (W)

75 85
Heat transfer rate (W)

70 80
75
65
70
60
65
55 60
50 55
50
45
45
40
40
35 35
30 30

25 25

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Re Re

c- With triangular fins d- With circular fins

Fig. 9. Variation of heat transfer rate with Re for different fins profiles and different nanofluids.

is a micro pin fin heat sink consists of square and circular pin fins velocity profile follows the parabolic distribution also it can be seen
with hydraulic diameter 75 mm and fin height 150 mm, on heat sink in the entrance region in the beginning of unfinned heat sink since
with total height of 500 mm, and width of 150 mm, the heat sink the flow is developing and the velocity increased from the walls
contains an array of 19 x 66 pin fins. Inlet temperature was chosen toward center of channel. For finned heat sink the mixing occurred
as 278.15 K and the inlet velocity depend on flow rate and heat sink in the flow differ from shape to shape of the fins and the square fins
dimensions. Thermal boundary condition is a constant heat flux of give maximum mixing.
1 W subjected on the bottom wall of the substrate. Fig. 7 illustrates the temperature distribution through a tem-
Fig. 5a and b shows the comparison between results of present perature contour on longitudinal (xez) plan at y ¼ 0.00025 m for
numerical model and the data of [18] for thermal resistance and heat sink with selected fins shapes (square, triangular and circular)
pressure drop respectively. From these two figures it can be seen in addition to the unfinned heat sink with pure water at Re ¼ 100.
that, the agreement between the results of present model and that From this figure it can be observed that, the temperature increased
for [18] is acceptable since the average error is 2% for thermal along flow direction due to heat transfer from lower wall with
resistance and 1.9% for pressure drop which may be due to the constant temperature. Also one can see that, the fins play an
difference in the selected properties of water and silicon also may important role to increase the heat transfer by increasing the heat
be due to the difference in mesh. Therefore the present numerical transfer area and creating the mixing in flow. The circular fins lead
model is reliable and can be used to study the effect of using to higher increase in temperature because it gives larger heat
nanofluid as a coolant on the performance of a micro pin fin heat transfer area since it includes larger preference followed by square
sink. and the triangular fins.
Fig. 6 shows the velocity contour on longitudinal (xez) plan at The variation of temperature difference (DT ¼ To e Tin) with
y ¼ 0.00025 m in heat sink with selected fins (square, triangular Reynolds number for heat sink with selected fins shapes and
and circular) in addition to the unfinned heat sink with pure water nanofluids in addition to the pure water is presented in Fig. 8. From
at Re ¼ 100. From this figure it can be seen that, the velocity dis- this figure it can be seen that, the temperature difference increased
tribution is affected by fin shape. For unfinned heat sink the with decreasing Reynolds number due to decreasing the velocity of
 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607 605

60 300
Pure water Pure water
55 275 Diamond-water
Diamond-water
Al2O3-water Al2O3-water
50 250

45 225

40 200

Pressure drop (Pa)

Pressure drop (Pa)

35 175

30 150

25 125

20 100

15 75

10 50

5 25

0 0

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Re Re

a-Unfinned heat sink b- With square fins

250 250
Pure water Pure water
Diamond-water
225 Diamond-water 225
Al2O3-water
Al2O3-water
200 200

175 175
Pressure drop (Pa)
Pressure drop (Pa)

150 150

125 125

100 100

75 75

50 50

25 25

0 0

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Re Re
c- With triangular fins d- With circular fins
Fig. 10. Variation of pressure drop with Re for different fins profiles and different nanofluids.

the flow which give the fluid extra time for heat transfer. Also it can conductivity and the difference between two nanofluids (Diamond-
be seen that, using of nanofluid as a coolant instead of pure water water and Al2O3-water) is small due to small difference in their
leads to enhanced heat transfer process by increasing the temper- properties. The percentage increase in heat transfer rate for Dia-
ature of exit fluid due to modification of fluid thermo physical mond-water compared with pure water [((qnf e qpf) \ qpf) * 100%] at
properties especially thermal conductivity. From the data of this Re ¼ 900 is 9.9%, 9.78% and 9.12% for square fins, triangular fins and
figure for all fins and unfinned heat sink and for all values of Rey- circular fins respectively.
nolds number the two nanofluids studied (Diamond-water) and Fig. 10 represents the variation of pressure drop with Reynolds
(Al2O3-water) gives temperature difference greater than that for number for finned and unfinned heat sink with selected fins ge-
pure water as explained before and the difference between two ometries and nanofluids. From this figure one can see that, the
nanofluids is small due to small difference in their properties. Using pressure drop increased with increasing Re for all fluids and fins
of Diamond-water nanofluid give higher temperature difference geometries due to increasing the flow rate with increasing Re. Also
due to its higher thermal conductivity. it can be noted that, using of nanofluid as a coolant instead of pure
Fig. 9 indicates the variation of heat transfer rate with Reynolds fluid causes extra increase in pressure drop compared with pure
number for finned and unfinned heat sink with selected fins ge- fluid due to existing of nano solid particles in nanofluid which
ometries and nanofluids. From this figure it can be noted that, the cause an increase in the viscosity and density of nanofluid. The
amount of heat transferred increased with increasing Re for all percentage increase in pressure drop for Diamond-water compared
fluids and fins geometries due to increasing flow rate with with pure water [((DPnf e DPpf) \ DPpf) * 100%] at Re ¼ 900 is 9.01%,
increasing Re. Also it can be seen that, using of nanofluid leads to 9.38% and 8.9% for square fins, triangular fins and circular fins
enhanced heat transfer process by increasing the amount of heat respectively. The very small difference may be observed in pressure
transferred due to increasing the temperature of exit fluid as drop between two nanofluids is due to small difference in density
explained before. Also it can be seen that, the Diamond-water for them.
nanofluid gives higher heat transfer rate compared with Al2O3- The variation of temperature difference with nanofluid volu-
water nanofluid and pure water due to its higher thermal metric concentration for all selected fins geometries and unfinned
606 M.I. Hasan / Applied Thermal Engineering 63 (2014) 598e607

37 transfer surface area compared with other geometries and it is

36 followed by square and triangular fins.
35 Fig. 12 shows the variation of pressure drop with nanofluid
34 volumetric concentration for all selected fins geometries and
33
unfinned heat sink (Sm. Channel) with two nanofluids. From this
figure it can be seen that, for all nanofluids and fins geometries the
32
Temperature Difference (c)

Sm. channel (Dm-water) pressure drop increased with increasing the concentration of
31
Sm. channel (Al2O3-water) nanofluid due to increase in the viscosity and density of nanofluid
30
Square fins (Dm-water) by increasing the amount of suspended nano solid particles and
29 increasing the concentration. Also the small extra pressure drop
Square fins (Al2O3-water)
28 caused by Diamond-water nanofluid compared with Al2O3-water is
Triangular fins (Dm-water)
27 due to its higher density. Also the square fins create a higher
Triangular fins (Al2O3-water)
26 pressure drop compared with other geometries due to existence of
Circular fins (Dm-water)
25 sharp edges and it is followed by circular and triangular fins.
Circular fins (Al2O3-water)
24
23 7. Conclusions
22
21 In this paper the usage of nanofluid as a coolant instead of pure
20 fluid in micro pin fin heat sink subjected to constant wall temper-
19 ature has been numerically investigated. Two types of nanofluid
(Diamond-water and Al2O3-water) have been used in pin fin heat
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
sink with three types of fins (square, triangular and circular) in
Concentration % addition to the unfinned heat sink. From the results obtained in the
Fig. 11. Variation of temperature difference with nanofluid concentration for different present work, the following remarks can be concluded:
fins profiles and different nanofluids.
- For all fins geometries using of nanofluid as a coolant lead to
enhanced cooling process by increasing the temperature of
heat sink (Sm. Channel) with two nanofluids is presented in Fig. 11. outlet fluid and the amount of heat that can be removed.
From this figure it can be observed that, for all nanofluids and fins - From other hand using of nanofluid cause increase in pressure
geometries the temperature difference increased with increasing drop.
the concentration of nanofluid due to increasing thermal conduc- - Diamond-water nanofluid is better than Al2O3-water from heat
tivity of nanofluid with increasing the amount of suspended nano transfer point of view since it can carry larger amount of heat
solid particles as a results of increasing the concentration. Also it transfer rate for all types of fins studied.
can be seen that, for all range of concentration values and all fins - By increasing the volumetric concentration of nanofluids both
geometries the (Diamond-water) nanofluid produce larger value of heat transfer rate and pressure drop have been increased
temperature difference compared with (Al2O3-water) due to its dramatically.
higher thermal conductivity. Also the circular fins give larger - At constant temperature as a thermal boundary condition and
temperature difference because it includes larger value of heat for all values of Re and for both nanofluids studied, the circular
fins give higher heat transfer rate compared with other fins. And
the square fins caused higher pressure drop.
15
References
14
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