Abstract:
In this numerical work, the cooling performance of water–Al2O3 nanofluid (NF) in a novel
microchannel heat sink with wavy walls (WMH-S) is investigated. The focus of this article is
on the effect of NP diameter on the cooling efficiency of the heat sink. The heat sink has four
inlets and four outlets, and it receives a constant heat flux from the bottom. CATIA and
CAMSOL software were used to design the model and simulate the NF flow and heat
transfer, respectively. The effects of the Reynolds number (Re) and volume percentage of
nanoparticles (Fi) on the outcomes are investigated. One of the most significant results of
this work was the reduction in the maximum and average temperatures of the H-S by
increasing both the Re and Fi. In addition, the lowest Tmax and pumping power belong to
the state of low NP diameter and higher Fi. The addition of nanoparticles reduces the heat
sink maximum temperature by 3.8 and 2.5% at the Reynolds numbers of 300 and 1800,
respectively. Furthermore, the highest figure of merit (FOM) was approximately 1.25, which
occurred at Re 1800 and Fi 5%. Eventually, it was revealed that the best performance
of the WMH-S was observed in the case of Re 807.87, volume percentage of 0.0437%,
and NP diameter of 20 nm.
