Heat transfer enhancement using Al2O3–water nanofluid for an electronic liquid cooling system
Introduction
Because of continually increasing power of microprocessors and other electronic components, a search for more efficient heat dissipating system can constitute today a rather challenging task. In spite of considerable researches and efforts deployed, major improvements in heat transfer capabilities, especially for cooling of high heat output electronics devices, have still suffered a certain lacking, see in particular [1], [2]. In recent years, advances in nanofabrication and processes have permitted the manufacturing of solid particles down to the nanometre scale, which has conducted to the creation of a new and rather special class of fluids, termed ‘nanofluids’ [3]. These fluids can constitute, in our opinion, very interesting alternatives for electronic cooling applications [4]. The term ‘nanofluid’ refers to a two-phase mixture usually composed of a continuous liquid phase and dispersed nanoparticles in suspension (i.e. extremely fine metallic particles of size below 50 nm). Several nanoparticle dispersions of engineering interest are readily available from various commercially sources [5]. It has been known that nanofluid thermal conductivities are interestingly well higher than those of base fluids (see in particular [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]). Some scarce experimental work [11], [12] and recent numerical studies by the authors [13], [14] have clearly confirmed the beneficial effect regarding the heat transfer enhancement by using nanofluids in two specific confined flow situations, namely the flow inside uniformly heated tube and the radial flow between heated disks. Such advantageous influence of nanofluids for cooling of high heat output microprocessors has also been numerically investigated as well [15], which appears to be quite consistent with preliminary experimental data and observations by Maré et al. [16] in their most recent study on the use of nanofluids in electronic cooling application. As mentioned by Keblinski et al. [17], there is a clear lack of data on nanofluids behaviour in real thermal applications; and to our knowledge, there exist no other exhaustive experimental data regarding the heat transfer performance of nanofluids for cooling of microprocessors or other electronic devices.
In the present work, we have experimentally investigated the heat transfer behaviour of a typical liquid cooling system, by replacing the base fluid, which is distilled water, by a nanofluid that is composed of distilled water and Al2O3 nanoparticles for two different particle average diameters and various volume concentrations. Some significant results and experimental data and observations are presented and discussed.
Section snippets
Description of experimental liquid cooling system
The experimental liquid cooling system is relatively simple and consists of a closed fluidic circuit, Fig. 1, which is mainly composed of a 5 l open reservoir and a 12 VDC magnetically driven pump that ensures a forced recirculation of liquid. A heated block, of overall dimensions 60 mm × 60 mm × 75 mm high, has an all-aluminium body and is electrically heated by mean of a standard 100 W nominal cartridge heater (Omega, USA), which simulates heat generated by a microprocessor. On top of this heated
Effect of nanofluid on temperature of the heated block
Fig. 3 shows, at first, the measured data as obtained for the heated block average temperature, Tm,block (note that Tm,block ≈ Tm,base), as function of mass flow rate, m. It is important to mention that from a practical viewpoint, for every electronic system such as the ones in a PC for example, such temperature of microprocessors or any other heated components represents an important operating variable, which can give a good indication of the system real-time status. One can clearly observe that
Conclusion
In the present experimental study, we have thoroughly investigated the heat transfer enhancement and behaviour of a particular nanofluid, Al2O3 nanoparticle–water mixture, for use in a closed cooling system that is destined for microprocessors or other heated electronic components. Data obtained have clearly shown that the inclusion of nanoparticles into distilled water has produced a considerable enhancement of the cooling convective heat transfer coefficient. For a particular particle volume
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the ‘Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’ and the Faculty of Graduated Studies and Research of the ‘Université de Moncton’ for their financial support to this project.
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