2023ICERD8-C41 -- Examination of Thermal and Flow Performance of Al2O3 Nanofluid in Double-Stacked Rectangular Microchannel with Different Geometric Parameters PDF

Nanofluid (NF) technology has approved the ability to improve heat transfer performance in different industrial applications such as heat exchangers, electronic devices, automotive radiators, etc. Nevertheless, several challenges with NF technology must be solved to be applied commercially. The present paper represents a numerical analysis of utilizing Al₂O₃/water as the working fluid in a rectangular microchannel heat sink at different geometric diameters. The laminar flow of the NF through a rectangular channel is examined numerically using finite volume analysis via Ansys-Fluent software to evaluate thermal and flow performance. The main aim of this article is to investigate the effect of changing geometric parameters on the behavior of heat transfer and fluid flow. Different designs of a double-stacked rectangular microchannel were studied by changing the space ratio (SR) parameter to understand the behavior and sensitivity of thermal and flow performance in order to find the optimal design. The assumed SR values are 0.231, 0.462, 0.693, and 0.924 mm and classified as SR 1, SR 2, SR 3, and SR 4, respectively. The result indicated that SR 2 design achieved the best thermal performance as it revealed lower temperature distribution along the channel. Additionally, the SR 2 design reached the highest heat transfer coefficient scoring 25637.51 W/(m²·K). Furthermore, the counterflow arrangement showed greater heat transfer coefficient results with an increment of 36.4% and 34.3% for both top and bottom microchannels considering SR 2 design, respectively.