Numerical Investigation of Laminar Convective Heat Transfer of Nanofluid in Parallel Cooling Channels

Cooling electronic component has become indispensable part of electronic devices.A good cooling method provides assurance that the electrical component less likely experience failure.One of the major methods of cooling electronic component is applying nanofluid in channels for heat transfer purpose.Conventional parallel channel design tends to have low pressure drop which indicates less pumping power for the cooling fluid.However, the drawback of the design is that the heat distribution is not sufficiently uniform.The main objective of the research is to make some modifications on the previous parallel channel and propose new parallel designs by using computational fluid dynamics.The flow behaviour and heat transfer performance of a Newtonin nanofluid are investigated under laminar flow condition.Taguchi method is used to determine the best combination of key parameters on this study.The results indicate that the proposed design shows better heat transfer performance compared to the conventional parallel channel.The addition of nanoparticles into the base fluid gives substantial effect on the heat transfer performance of the proposed cooling channel.Optimum operating parameters is obtained with the objective function of minimizing pressure drop and maximizing uniformity of heat distribution. © 2023, Institute of Technology PETRONAS Sdn Bhd.