On the influence of particle clustering on heat transfer and rheological properties of nanofluids.

The rapid growth of electronic technologies, together with a rapid decrease in component size, has led to a strong need for thermal packaging and management. The use of strong power density is, at present, coupled to inefficient heat dissipation methods, leading to an extreme technological bottleneck. A way of enhancing heat dissipation is to use highly thermally conductivity fluids in microchannel heat sink cooling systems. Nanofluids have a strong potential to enhance heat transfer, but they also modify the thermal conductivity and fluid rheology due to possible nanoparticle clustering. Therefore, this research project aims to both better understand the effect of nanoparticle clustering on the nanofluid’s behavior and to find strategies to control nanoparticle aggregation with the final aim to develop improved nanofluids for heat transfer enhancement in microchannel heat sink systems.

Keywords:Nanofluids, Rheology, Heat transfer, Non-intrusive measurement techniques, Particle aggregation

Disciplines:Thermodynamics, Electrical power engineering, Energy generation, conversion and storage engineering, Mechanics, Mechatronics and robotics, Manufacturing engineering, Safety engineering