Cooling Of Electronics With Nanofluids

By Rahul .T , Christopher , Third year , JJCET .

Abstract
Nanofluids are solutions of a small fraction of suspended nanoparticles in a bulk fluid. Nanofluids have shown great promise as heat transfer fluids over typically used bulk fluids and fluids with micron sized particles. The nanoparticles do not settle in the fluid and do not cause clogging or damage to surfaces as with micron sized particles. Much attention has been paid in the past decade to this new type of composite material because of its enhanced properties and behaviour associated with heat transfer . Nanofluids have been proposed to improve the performance of microchannel heat sinks. In this paper, we present a systematic characterization of nanofluids on cooling electronics The Nusselt number was extracted from the experimental results and compared with the theoretical predictions considering the change of fluids bulk properties. We demonstrated a deviation of less than 10% between the experiments and the predictions. We showed that the relative thermal conductivity enhancement must be larger than the relative viscosity increase in order to gain a sizeable performance benefit. Furthermore, we showed that it would be preferable to increase the volumetric heat capacity of the fluid instead of increasing its thermal conductivity.

Introduction
High heat flux removal is a major challenge in the design of future electronic devices. The trend to address these high heatfluxes is to introduce microchannel arrays directly in the heat generating electronic component . Commonly, water is suggested to be used as a singlephase coolant in combination with microchannel heat sinks for cooling electronics, as it possesses the most adequate thermal and hydrodynamic transport properties in the required range of operating temperatures. However, the thermal conductivity of water is two to three orders of magnitude lower than of most metals and metal oxides. Therefore, an innovative way to elevate the thermal conductivity of fluids may be the addition of nanometer-sized metal or metal oxide particles into a base-fluid, most suitably Nanofluids are dilute liquid suspensions of nanoparticles with at least one critical dimension smaller than ~100nm. The nanoparticles used in nanofluids are typically made of metals, oxides, carbides, or carbon nanotubes. Common base fluids include water , ethylene glycol and oil .The nanofluids have drawn much attention in the heat transfer society .Nanofluids are promising to meet and enhance the challenges. The major interest of

the research on nanofluids has focused on the enhanced thermal conductivity of the colloids under stationary condition .There has been a broad range of experimental investigations using common measurement techniques such as the transient-hot-wire method, the 3-wrie method, and the parallel plate method. However, there is a large scatter in the data of thermal conductivity enhancements. To give just one example, 160% thermal conductivity increase for 1 vol % of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in silicone Oil. Thermal conductivity of the tested nanofluids increased with particle loading, particle aspect ratios, and decreasing basefluid thermal conductivity. Nevertheless, all experimental data could be well explained by the classical effective medium theory for well-dispersed particles . Forced convective heat transfer is not only influenced by the thermal conductivity of the coolant. Other transport properties such as the fluid density, specific heat capacity, and dynamic viscosity have an impact on the performance of the cooling solution and thus are being investigated to greater or lesser extent . The enhanced convective heat transfer coefficient and the increased pressure loss are in good agreement with the traditional model predictions for laminar flow.

Nanofluid preparation and characterization

Two nanofluid production methods has been developed in ANL to allow selection of the most appropriate nanoparticle material for a particular application. In two-step process for oxide nanoparticles (Kool-Aid method), nanoparticles are produced by evaporation and inert-gas condensation processing, and then dispersed (mixed, including mechanical agitation and sonification) in base fluid. A patented one-step process simultaneously makes and disperses nanoparticles directly into base fluid; best for metallic nanofluids. The fluids were prepared by adding the nanoparticles at a specified mass to the DI-water to achieve the desired volume loading of the mixture. No surfactant was added to the mixture so that the only components were the nanoparticle and the DI-water. The fluids were then sonicated for at least 2 h in a UP200S portable ultrasonicator to break up any agglomerates. The nanofluids were characterized to determine the actual size of the particles within the suspension. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) was performed. Even though the DLS results did not agree with the specified particle size, the suspensions were stable on the shelf for a period of a month for the 20 to 30 nm particle suspensions. Because these suspensions contain particles that are larger than the typical size of particles in nanofluid suspensions (1to100 nm in diameter) these may not actually be nanofluids, but they are considerably smaller than micron sized particles therefore they should exhibit some of the features of nanofluids with respect to the stability and reduced damage to interior of the components in the system. The 10 nm and 150 nm particle suspensions were much less stable when compared to the particle suspensions therefore we have chosen to only perform the thermal measurements on the particle suspensions

Mechanisms of the thermal conduction enhancement

A number of mechanisms have been proposed for interpreting the experimentally observed thermal conduction enhancement including Brownian motion of nanoparticles, the interfacial ordering of liquid molecules on the surface of nanoparticles, the ballistic transport of energy carriers within individual nanoparticles and between nanoparticles that are in

contact, as well as the nanoparticle structuring and networking There has been much debate on these mechanisms over the past few years and the focus of debate has been on the role of Brownian motion . A brief discussion will be made in the following text on the two muchdebated mechanisms. The role of Brownian motion The Brownian motion of nanoparticles could contribute to the thermal conduction enhancement through two ways, a direct contribution due to motion of nanoparticles that transport heat, and an indirect contribution due to micro-convection of fluid surrounding individual nanoparticles. The direct contribution of Brownian motion has been shown theoretically to be negligible as the time scale of the Brownian motion is about 2 orders of magnitude larger than that for the thermal diffusion of the base liquid The indirect contribution has also been shown to play a minute role by theoretical analysis . Furthermore, nanoparticles are often in the form of agglomerates and aggregates. The Brownian motion should therefore play an even less significant role. In the following text, further experimental evidence of the minor role of the Brownian motion is presented. The thermal conductivity enhancement as a function of temperature for nanofluids made of three types of metal-oxide nanoparticles. One can see that, for CuO/H2O nanofluids, the thermal conductivity enhancement is a very weak function of temperature. The weak temperature dependence suggests that the Brownian motion of nanoparticles is not a dominant mechanism of the enhanced thermal conductivity of nanofluids No clear trend in the dependence of the thermal conductivity enhancement on the base liquid viscosity again suggests the minor role of the Brownian motion. The role of liquid molecular layering At the solid-liquid interface, liquid molecules could be significantly more ordered than those in the bulk liquid. By analogy to the thermal behaviour of crystalline solids, the ordered structure could be a mechanism of thermal conductivity enhancement On such a basis, a number of macroscopic models have been proposed to interpret the experimental data; see for example, It is now clear that the liquid-nanoparticle interface is one of the main factors that decrease (rather than increase) the effective thermal conductivity due to the so-called Kapita interfacial resistance It should be noted that the effect of interfacial resistance on the overall effective thermal conductivity depends on the particle size When particle size is relatively small in comparison with the characteristic length scale due to the interfacial resistance, nanoparticles act as insulators. This leads to deterioration of the thermal conduction of nanofluids. The last standing mechanism The above discussion indicates that neither Brownian motion nor interfacial liquid layering can be a dominant mechanism. As the ballistic transport of energy carriers in nanofluids has been excluded as a dominant mechanism, the last mechanism standing is the nanoparticle structuring / networking . This has actually been validated by our experimental results and theoretical analyses of ethylene-glycolbased titania nanofluids. We found that the size of the aggregates is approximately 3.5 times that of the primary nanoparticles .By using the Maxwellmodel for aggregate suspensions and the Bruggeman model for aggregates a nanoparticle structuring model is formulated which gives a fairly . Ballistic phonon could lead to a significant increase in thermal conductivity. In particular, if the ballistic phonons initiated in one particle can persist in the liquid and reach a nearby particle, a major increase of thermal conductivity is expected. Be- cause the phonon mean free path is much shorter in the liquid than in the particle, such may only operate if the separation between particles is very small, likely on the order of the thickness of the layered liquid(%12 nm).

Schematic diagram 1 : Ballistic and diusive phonontransport mechanisms in a solid particle.

Theoretical Models
Increase in thermal conductivity depends on nanoparticle material, size and concentration. Nanoparticles have a large surface area-to-volume ratio; a 1 nm spherical particle has a surface area-to-volume ratio 1000 time greater than that of a 1 m particle; Kapitza resistance becomes important for such large surface areas. Increase in thermal conductivity is beyond the classic Maxwellian model predictions. Literature survey reveals that there are large number of models for estimating thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The existing models can be categorised into two general groups:(i) Static models which assume stationary nanoparticles in the base fluid in which the thermal conductivity is predicted by conduction-based models such as Maxwell45, Hamilton- Crosser46, and others47,48, using conductivity of phase constituents and volume fractions, (ii)Dynamic models based on random motion of the nanoparticles in fluid (Brownian motion) and responsible for transporting energy through collision between nanoparticles or micro liquid convection, mixing that enhances the transport of thermal energy. Modelling of nanofluid properties has been done through molecular diffusion simulation. Some of the basic models used to estimate the thermal conductivity based on above two approaches are shown in Table 2. Heat transfer coefficient increase are on top of the thermal conductivity. Possible mechanisms considered for this increase are nanoparticle diffusion and boundary layer thinning, dispersion and enhanced turbulence. Increase in critical heat flux may be attributed to alteration of nucleation site by nanoparticle

Experimental Setup
The microchannel heat sink used in the present investigation. A test-vehicle consists of a silicon die and a glass chip being 16 mm in size. The silicon die contains A 10 mm in 2 array of parallel microchannels. The microchannel array was fabricated by standard photolithography and deep reactive ion etching into the 525 mm thick silicon chip. In the same process, step pressure taps at 0 mm and 10 mm were integrated to resolve the pressure drop across the microchannel array. In a second DRIE sequence, lateral fluid ports with an opening , implemented into the silicon chip for fluid supply and return. We integrated a resistive heater on the center back side of the silicon chip covered with a 100 nm thick silicon oxide layer for electrical insulation. The heater covered an area of 10_10 mm2 and was realized by depositing a 300 nm thick NiCr 80/20 metal layer with a low temperature resistance coefficient of 80 ppm for optimal heat flux uniformity structured by a lift-off resist providing a total electrical resistance .At the center line of the heater orthogonal to the flow direction, the heater was separated into two sections by a resistive temperature device . A 300 nm thick gold metallization was used as contact pads and the formation of the RTD,

providing a temperature resistance coefficient of 2300 ppm/K. The heat transfer structure, the fluid ports and the pressure taps were covered by a 500 mm thick glass _Pyrex, thermal expansion coefficient close to silicon wafer to seal the structure and to allow optical access from the top. The glass wafer was spin coated with a 4 mm to 5 mm thick polyimide layer. We achieved a leak-proof bond between the silicon and the glass wafer by applying a uniform pressure of 7 bars in a membrane oven at 320C and 1 mbar atmosphere. The package was cut by a dicing saw into individual chips. The individual test-vehicles were connected to a test-section providing interfaces for the fluid supply and return and the pressure taps and electrical connections in form of spring loaded probs. The pressure drop across the microchannel array was measured by a differential pressure transducer with a maximum pressure difference of 2 bars . We used T-type thermocouples with a specified error of 0.1 K to measure the fluid inlet and outlet temperatures. A spatial temperature distribution of the heater backside was obtained by observing the heater by an infrared _IR_ camera with a noise-equivalent temperature difference of 25 mK .we incorporated a particle filter with a pore size of 7 mm to prevent the microchannel array from contamination with larger impurities. The flow rate and the fluid density were measured by a coriolis flow meter. We monitored the fluid density during all runs to assure that there was no change in the composition of the fluids. The heat was removed by a 1.8 kW chiller guaranteeing constant fluid inlet temperature of 20 to1.5C. Other uncertainties are listed in Table 1, where the uncertainties of the secondary variables were derived by applying standard uncertainty propagation theory.

Experimental Results
The heat flux as a function of the wall superheat (temperature difference between the bulk fluid and the boiling surface), together with the prediction by the classical correlation of Rehsenow for pool boiling. One can see that the experimental data for water agree well with the Rehsenow correlation. The data of nanofluids deviate from the Rehsenow equation and the deviation increases with nanoparticle concentration. The data shown in are processed to give the heat transfer coefficient. The results in the form of the ratio of heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids to that of pure water given other conditions. Enhancement of the boiling heat transfer is significant for both alumina and titania nanofluids in the nucleate regime, and the enhancement cannot be entirely attributed to the thermal conduction enhancement also shows that the heat transfer enhancement increases with nanoparticle concentration and the enhancement for titania nanofluids is more sensitive to the change of particle concentration in comparison with that for alumina nanofluids. The different heat transfer behaviour of alumina and titania nanofluids indicates that the nanofluid properties have an influence on the boiling heat transfer in the nucleate regime. The experimental results of this work as presented above agree with that and our results, however, disagree with observed deterioration of boiling heat transfer in the nucleate regime. The exact reason for the discrepancy is unclear. Possible reasons are discussed in the following text: Thermal conductivity and viscosity affect the heat transfer behaviour of nanofluids in opposite ways. As a result, a combination of thermal conductivity enhancement and increment of the viscosity can give either enhancement or deterioration of the heat transfer coefficient. However, there is too little information in the published studies to permit making a conclusive assessment. Stability of nanofluids and the presence of a dispersant / surfactant affect the behaviour of nanofluids, which are often not provided in the published studies. For example, settling of nanoparticles in nanofluids with poor stability can change the properties of the boiling surface, and surfactants / dispersants may fail at elevated temperatures. Boiling heat transfer consists of a number of subprocesses in parallel and/or series, including

unsteady-state heat conduction, growth and departure of bubbles, and convection due to bubble motion and liquid re-filling. These sub-processes are affected by parameters such as heater geometry, properties of the boiling surface, orientation of the heater, liquid subcooling, system pressure, and the mode in which the system is operated. the boiling heat transfer. The surface properties include surface finish (roughness), surface wettability, and surface contamination, as they all influence the number and distribution of active nucleation sites for bubbles and their subsequent growth. In the published studies, however, surface roughness is the most often-used parameter, and interpretation of the effect of surface roughness on the boiling heat transfer has been based on the size of the suspended particles relative to the surface roughness. For example, a boiling surface of nanometre-scale roughness, hence sedimentation of the particles was regarded to effectively increase the roughness of the surface, whereas a commercial cartridge heater with a micron-scale surface roughness onto which sedimentation of the nanoparticles was thought to decrease the effective surface roughness. Different temperature measurement methods may lead to the different experimental results obtained by different investigators. For example, all thermocouples were welded on the outer surface of the cartridge heater .This would inevitably influence the surface characteristics of the boiling surface, as bubbles have a tendency to nucleate on the welded positions and the measured temperature may not be representative of the boiling surface used fine resistance wires for temperature measurements. Large uncertainties are expected for this sort of method as temperature is converted from the measured resistance of the heating wire against the standard temperature-resistance curve. Indeed, for boiling with pure water, more than 10 deviance of superheat was observed under a fixed heat flux condition in different runs; It may be sensible for a qualitative comparison of the critical heat flux (CHF), but it may not be adequate for a quantitative comparison of nucleate boiling heat transfer. Obviously, the above discussion is crude and on aqualitative basis. Nevertheless, these points provide possible ways towards interpreting the controversies in the literature.

Theoretical Evaluation of the Nanofluid Potential Effectiveness for Electronics Cooling

we concentrated on the convective heat transfer of nanofluids and neglected to discuss the increased viscous pressure drop for nanofluids and its impact on the performance of microchannel heat sinks. The characteristic number for a heat sink is its coefficient of performance, COP, defined as the ratio of the dissipated heat to the invested pumping power The dissipated heat scales with the total thermal resistance of the system, whereas for a constant volumetric flow rate and geometry, the pressuredrop across the heat sink; thus, the invested pumping power are proportional to the dynamic viscosity of the coolant. As depicted in none of the nanofluids provided a region with a lower thermal resistance than water, irrespective of the channel width of the heat sink. Since all silica nanofluids showed an increased viscosity compared with water, there would be no benefit of using one of these nanofluids in combination with the present heat sink designs. There are several investigations reporting higher thermal conductivity enhancements at lower particle concentrations than for the present silica nanofluids. Also, the international benchmark demonstrated that the thermal conductivity enhancement increases with increasing particle aspect ratio and thermal conductivity ratio of the particle and the basefluid. Hence, there might be better performing nanofluids than the present silica nanofluids. To study the general potential of nanofluids to enhance the performance of microchannel heat sinks, we applied the experimentally validated one-dimensional model presented to determine the heat sink performance as a function of the fluid thermophysical properties. We demonstrated in a previous study that there exists an optimum channel width for a constant

filling factor of 0.5 and constant channel height maximizing the COP of a microchannel heat If the channel width is reduced further than the optimum width, the increase of bulk thermal resistance due to an increased hydrodynamic resistance reduction of the volumetric flow rate cannot be compensated by a reduction of convective thermal resistance. Since the bulk and the convective thermal resistance are a function of the thermophysical properties of the coolant, the optimum channel width changes with varying fluid properties. Thus, for a meaningful evaluation of the impact of the individual fluid properties, the heat sink performance has to be compared at the respective design optimum. We studied the impact of a relative change of the thermophysical fluid properties on the heat sink performance for a constant pumping power of 1 W corresponding to the higher pumping power range of the experiments. If water is used as the coolant, the optimum channel width is estimated to be wch ,opt=35.7 _m, resulting in a total thermal resistance of 0.121 cm2 K/W for a volumetric flow rate of 0.215 l/min and a pressure drop of 2.78 bars. Figure 8 shows the relative change of the heat sink total thermal resistance, the optimum channel width, and the volumetric flow rate for a relative change of the thermal conductivity, dynamic viscosity, specific heat, and density compared with water. If we consider a heat sink optimized for water and assume that the thermal conductivity of the coolant is increased by 50% for example, the convective thermal resistance will be reduced. Thus, the bulk thermal resistance becomes dominant. It would be preferential to increase the channel width in order to reduce the hydrodynamic resistance and thus increase the volumetric flow rate .Consequently, the bulk thermal resistance would be reduced at the expense of an increased convective resistance. At the new optimum channel width, the total thermal resistance would be reduced by about 10%. A 50% increase in dynamic viscosity entails a shift of the optimum channel width to wider channels to reduce the hydrodynamic resistance but, on the other hand, the convective thermal resistance is increased. The increased hydrodynamic resistance due to higher viscosities is not fully compensated by the enlargement of the channel width. Thus, the bulk thermal resistance is increased as well, resulting in a 12% larger total thermal resistance . Increasing the specific heat capacity of the fluid or the fluid density has a similar effect on the heat sinks performance. If one of these properties is increased by 50%, the effective thermal mass of the coolant is enlarged, causing a reduction of the bulk thermal resistance. Hence, the optimum is shifted to narrower channels and the convective thermal resistance is reduced, leading to a 20% reduction of the heat sink total thermal resistance. To evaluate the potential of nanofluids to increase the performance of microchannel heat sinks, we considered a best case scenario. Therefore, we neglected the reduction of volumetric heat capacity of the fluid. We determined the relative COP of the heat sink operated by a nanofluid with a random combination of relative thermal conductivities and viscosities compared with water

Conclusions
In this paper, we evaluated the potential of nanofluids for cooling of electronics .The natural convective heat transfer coefficient systematically decreases with increasing nanoparticle concentration. Although the exact reason is still unclear, the deterioration can be partially attributed to the high viscosity of nanofluids. We observed the total thermal resistance as a function of volumetric flow rate and extracted the Nusselt number for the individual parameters. The experimentally determined Nusselt number was compared with the analytical predictions, considering the change of fluid bulk properties. We could demonstrate a deviation between the experiment and the predictions of less than 10%, indicating that there is no significant additional effect from the particles themselves on the convective heat transfer. Hence, standard correlations can be applied to adequately determine the convective heat transfer of nanofluids if the thermophysical properties of the fluid given.

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10. K. Azar, Cooling technology options, parts 1 and 2, Electronics Cooling