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The thermal performance of nanofluids in microchannel of rectangular cross-section was experimentally investigated in this study. In the previous studies, a threshold nanoparticle concentration exists where the critical concentration separates the heat transfer performance of the nanofluid during a flow through microchannels. Thus, the emphasis of our study is to find the optimum concentration value of nanoparticles for enhancing the forced convective heat transfer coefficients. In this study, thin-film thermocouple array (TFTA) of K-Type (Chromel/ Alumel) was employed to measure the temperature profile on the heated surface in the microchannel (while the top and wall was sufficiently insulated). The TFTA deposited on a silicon wafer is bonded with a polymer substrate containing the molded microchannel. The microchannel was made using the Poly Di-Methyl Siloxane (PDMS). The mold for the microchannel in order to cure the PDMS onto it was fabricated using soft-lithography technique on an atomically stable silicon substrate. To assess the thermal performance of nanofluids in micro-channels, the temperature profiles in the heated bottom wall of the micro-channel was monitored using the TFTA which was then used to estimate the wall heat flux values. The concentration and size of the silica nanoparticles in the aqueous nanofluids are parametrically varied in this study (e.g. at weight concentrations of 0.5%, 0.1% and 0.2%). These parametric experiments were performed by varying the wall temperatures (e.g. 30, 50 and 70 °C) and flow rates (e.g. 5, 7 and 9 μl/min).

Flow boiling experiments were performed on copper, bare silicon and carbon nanotube (CNT) coated silicon wafer using water as the test fluid. Wall heat flux was measured by varying the wall superheat. The experiments were performed under pool boiling conditions (zero flow rate) as well as by varying the flow rates of water. The liquid sub-cooling was varied between 40 ∼ 60 °C. An infra–red camera was used to calibrate the surface temperature of the silicon wafers and the copper surface. Heat flux measurements were performed by using a calorimeter apparatus. High speed visualization experiments were performed to measure the bubble departure diameter, bubble departure frequency and bubble growth rate as a function of time. Heat flux values for all three surfaces were calculated from the temperature differences obtained by sheathed thermocouples inside the copper block in the calorimeter apparatus. Flow boiling curves were plotted to enumerate the enhancements in heat transfer. It was observed that MWCNT coated silicon surface enables higher heat fluxes compared to bare silicon surface. This enhancement can be ascribed to be due to the high thermal conductivity of the carbon nanotubes, micro-layer effect, enhancement of transient heat transfer due to periodic solid-liquid contact and increase in active nucleation sites on nanostructured surfaces.

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Pool boiling experiments were conducted to investigate the saturation boiling of PF-5060 dielectric liquid on micro porous copper surface. The micro porous surface is deposited on a copper coated silicon wafer diced to a size of 40 mm × 68 mm. Reference experiments were performed using a bare silicon wafer of the same size. Experiments are also performed using deionized water that was degassed prior to the experiment. The experimental results show that there is ∼48% enhancement of heat flux in nucleate boiling regime on the micro porous copper surface, compared to that on a bare surface for pool boiling of PF-5060. The measurement uncertainty for heat flux in these experiments is estimated to be ∼15%. The enhanced surface area provided by the micro porous copper surface as well as the reduction in the magnitude of the Taylor instability wavelength on a copper surface, increase in the nucleation site density on the porous surface, capillary replenishment of the dry out regions and the increase in transient heat transfer from the porous surface — are postulated to be the enhancement mechanisms for the observed augmentation in heat flux values.