Optimization of a Refrigerant Base Nanofluid-Cooled Microchannel Heat Sink with Pumping Power Consideration

Abstract

In this paper, the optimization of a nanofluid-cooled microchannel heat sink was reported. Al2O3-NH3 with three different volume fractions (1 %, 3 % and 5 %) was examined. An optimization scheme which is comprised of two objective functions (thermal resistance and pumping power) and the elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was employed to optimize the overall performance of the considered system. Under the same operating conditions, the ammonia-base nanofluid (Al2O3-NH3) exceeded other coolants (Al2O3-H2O and H2O) in terms of the required pumping power (0.144, 1.015 and 0.94 W for Al2O3-NH3, Al2O3-H2O and H2O, respectively). When the refrigerant base nanofluid is used as a cooling fluid, a lighter heat sink was produced. Finally, more studies should be dedicated to explore this nanofluid and the possibility of considering it for electronic systems cooling.
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