Experimental study on the convective heat transfer performance and pressure drop of functionalized graphene nanofluids in electronics cooling system

Cooling of electronic equipment has gained significant importance in thermal management systems as a result of the increase of power densities in micro-electronic equipment. This present work investigates the convective cooling performance of microwave assisted acidic functionalized graphene – deionized water nanofluid. The nanofluid possess high dispersion stability (Zeta potential < −40 mV) in the pH range (6–8) and a thermal conductivity enhancement of 55.38% compared to base fluid. The heat transfer performance of the nanofluid was studied by investigating the effect of volume fraction (0 to 0.2 vol.%) and flow rate (5 ml/s to 10 ml/s) on the convective heat transfer coefficient, processor core temperature, and pressure drop. An increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient of about 78.5%, a decrease in the core temperature of about 15% and an average increase of 5% in pressure drop were obtained for the maximum concentration and flow rate of the nanofluid. The results concluded that acidic functionalization of graphene nanoparticle has a significant influence on the increase in the thermo-fluid properties of nanofluid and thus can be used as an efficient heat transfer fluid, compared to conventional coolants.