Effect of CuO/Water Nanofluid in the Enhancement of Convective Heat Transfer for Electronic Cooling

Electronic components generate heat as a by product in their operation. Effective handling and dissipation of the heat generated is essential for the development of reliable electronic components. In this work, copper oxide nanoparticles of average size 16nm are synthesized by sol gel method. Then the water based nanofluids of low volume concentrations of 0.1% and 0.2% are prepared by dispersing the required quantity of copper oxide nanoparticles in deionised water. A copper heat sink of overall dimensions 100x100 mm with macro rectangular channels is used for the present study. The prepared nanofluids are tested in the copper heat sink and their convective heat transfer performance and pressure drop characteristic are compared with the deionised water. It is found from the experimental results that the average increase in convective heat transfer coefficient of heat sink when CuO/water of 0.2% volume concentration nanofluid is used as the working fluid is 17.8% compared to deionised water while there is no significant rise in pressure drop due to the use of nanofluids.