Investigation of the effect of fins and magnetic field on flow maldistribution and two-phase mixture model simulation of nanofluid heat transfer in microchannel heat sink.

Many attempts were made in recent years to create effective heat exchange devices in an effort to save energy and raw resources while also taking economic and environmental concerns into account. A compacted cooling component called a liquid-cooled microchannel heat sink was utilized to provide electronic components higher heat dissipation rates and low temperatures. In this study, the finite volume method in three dimensions was used to simulate laminar flow of water/Al2O3 nanofluid (NF) with volume fractions (φ) ranging from 0 to 4 vol% at Reynolds numbers of 50, 100, 200, and 400 in steady states inside the microchannel (MC) under the influence of a homogeneous magnetic field with Ha = 0–40. When pure water was used as the working fluid, the numerical findings demonstrated that fins increase the rate of heat transfer (HT) by a factor of four. In contrast, water-Al2O3 doubled the HT rate in the bare MC. Ansys Fluent simulation software was utilized to consider the laminar, steady state, and incompressible flow of NF with constant thermophysical characteristics. The findings indicated that Fins create the HT 3.9 times greater than the smooth MC in pure water flow. When 4% of nanoparticles were added to the base fluid in a smooth wall MC, the pressure drop (∆P) in comparison to the flow of pure water increased 1.25 times. The pressure drop in the finned MC was double that of the NF flow at the same flow condition. The maximum performance evaluation criterion (PEC) for NF flow in a smooth channel was 2. The maximum PEC in a finned MC flowing pure water is 3, whereas the maximum PEC in a finned MC flowing NF was 7.5. The fins had a significantly greater impact on HT than the magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]