Thermal performance of nanofluids in microchannel equipped with a synthetic jet actuator

Numerical investigations of heat transfer enhancement in three-dimensional micro-channels with single synthetic jet using Al₂O₃-water, CuO-water and TiO₂-water combinations were conducted. The effects of different types of nanoparticles at particle volume concentrations of 1%, 2% and 5% on the thermal performance in the micro-channel were examined. The numerical tool was validated against existing experimental data on the heat transfer characteristic of nanofluids in micro-channel. Heat transfer enhancement using nanofluids based on the eulerian model was assessed for the cases without synthetic jet operator and with synthetic jet operator. In general, the thermal performance was greatly influenced by the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of the type of nanofluids used. As the particle volume concentration increased, the heat transfer performance also improved. The result showed that the heat transfer performance of nanofluids with Al₂O₃ and CuO used in this study was better than that of pure water with the operation of the synthetic jet actuator. Overall, nanofluids with Al₂O₃-water at 5% particle volume concentration showed the best cooling performance whereas nanofluids with TiO₂ fails to improve the thermal performance.