Veröffentlichungen und Präsentationen

The present study aimed to determine the effect of nanofluid concentration, channel inclusion, flow rate, and heat flux, on the thermal effectiveness of Al2O3 nanofluid and 6061-T6 aluminum foam metal with 91% porosity and 40 linear pores per inch as components in a heat exchange system with applications in electronics cooling. The study considered laminar, steady flow, under local thermal equilibrium conditions. The experimental results obtained in the study were then replicated in COMSOL Multiphysics^® simulation software. The numerical results showed good agreement with the results obtained experimentally with relative error under 5%. The results indicated that when using flow in channels the highest available concentration of 0.6% nanofluid produced the most favorable results. This was indicated by the particular combination producing the lowest temperature distribution and the highest Nusselt number distribution. The converse was however observed when considering only the bulk foam. The bulk foam demonstrated that the lowest concentration of 0.1% nanofluid produced the best results. It is believed that this is likely as a result of the increased fluid viscosity and density which interferes with motion of the fluid through the highly tortuous foam metal. When considering the most effective choice for the development of high performance electronics heat exchangers the recommendation is then to use a system which includes porously filled channels with a 0.6% concentration nanofluid as the working fluid.