The optimization of a nanofluid-cooled rectangular microchannel heat sink is
reported. Two nanofluids with volume fraction of 1 %, 3 %, 5 %, 7 % and 9 %
are employed to enhance the overall performance of the system. An
optimization scheme is applied consisting of a systematic thermal resistance
model as an analysis method and the elitist non-dominated sorting genetic
algorithm (NSGA-II). The optimized results showed that the increase in the
particles volume fraction results in a decrease in the total thermal
resistance and an increase in the pumping power. For volume fractions of 1
%, 3 %, 5 %, 7 % and 9 %, the thermal resistances were 0.072, 0.07151,
0.07075, 0.07024 and 0.070 [oK W-1] for the SiC-H2O while, they were 0.0705,
0.0697, 0.0694, 0.0692 and 0.069 [oK W-1] for the TiO2-H2O. The associated
pumping power were 0.633, 0.638, 0.704, 0.757 and 0.807 [W] for the SiC-H2O
while they were 0.645, 0.675, 0.724, 0.755 and 0.798 [W] for the TiO2-H2O.
In addition, for the same operating conditions, the nanofluid-cooled system
outperformed the water-cooled system in terms of the total thermal
resistance (0.069 and 0.11 for nanofluid-cooled and water-cooled systems,
respectively). Based on the results observed in this study, nanofluids
should be considered as the future coolant for electronic devices cooling
systems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.