Experimental Measurements and Numerical Computation of Nano Heat Transfer Enhancement Inside a Porous Material

Abstract

Abstract The rapid rate of improvement in electronic devices has led to an increased demand for effective cooling techniques. The purpose of this study is to investigate the heat transfer characteristics of an aluminum metallic foam for use with an Intel core i7 processor. The metal foams used have a porosity of 0.91 and different permeabilities ranging from 10 pores per inch (PPI) to 40 PPI. The flow rate at the entrance of the porous cavity varied from 0.22 USGPM to 0.1 USGPM. The fluid consists of water with aluminum nanoparticles having a concentration from 0.1% to 0.5%. The heat fluxes applied at the bottom of the porous test cell vary from 13.25 W/cm2 to 8.34 W/cm2. It has been observed that nanofluid and forced convection improves heat extraction. These observations lead to the conclusion that heat enhancement is possible with nanofluid and it is enhanced further in the presence of a high flow rate. However, it was detected experimentally, verified numerically, and agreed upon by different researchers that higher heat extraction is found for a nanofluid concentration of 0.2%. This observation is independent of the porous permeability or applied heat flux. It has also been shown that heat enhancement in the presence of nanofluid is evident, when experimental results were compared to water.