Effect of Serpentine Grooves on Heat Transfer Characteristics of Microchannel Heat Sink with Different Nanofluids

An experimental and numerical investigation of the thermal performance of three different nanofluids ethylene glycol-based CuO, water-based CuO, and Al2O3 is done in a serpentine-shaped micorchannel heat sink. The microchannels considered ranged from 810 μm to 890 μm in hydraulic diameter and were made of copper material. The experiments were conducted with the Reynolds number ranging from approximately 100 to 1300. The forced convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids shows that there is an improved heat transfer rate compared to base fluids water and ethylene glycol. The experimental results also confirm that there is an earlier transition from laminar to turbulent flow in microchannels. The results prove that as the hydraulic diameter decreases there is increased pressure drop and the heat transfer coefficient increases for both the base fluids and nanofluids. The flow characteristics are discussed based on the pressure drop. While investigating the heat transfer coefficient of the three different nanofluids the nanofluid CuO/EG has the highest heat transfer coefficient as a result of the material's property. This research also will encourage young researchers to work on nanofluids of varying nanoparticle size and concentration to discover new results. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.