GOALI: Transport in Nanoscale Colloidal Systems

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Nanofluids, typically consisting of a base liquid containing nanometer-sized particles for enhancing the liquid's thermal conductivity, have been proposed for application in heat transfer systems, such as the heat exchangers in electronic packaging. The limited experimental data presently available clearly indicate the potential to dramatically increase the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid, which is promising for enhancing heat transfer. A comprehensive fundamental understanding of transport in such nanofluids, including information on both their thermal conductivity and viscosity, is however lacking. This project involves a collaborative effort between Arizona State University and the Intel Corporation aimed to improve our fundamental understanding of nanofluids, including an understanding of how they can be applied in macroscale and microscale heat exchangers. A variety of experiments are proposed, including the measurement of the static thermal conductivity and viscosity of various nanofluids, a novel measurement of the flow thermal conductivity under controlled strain-rate conditions, a characterization of the nanofluid morphology using quasielastic light scattering (QELS), and finally heat transfer and pressure drop measurements of nanofluids applied in mm-sized tubes and in microchannel heat sinks. Predictive models for the properties will be developed, and these constitutive relations will be applied to a general simulation of the performance of macroscale and microscale heat exchangers, to enable the prediction of the performance of such heat exchangers in the future that utilize nanofluids. The award has been funded by the Thermal Transport and Thermal Processing Program of the Chemical and Transport Systems Division, with cooperation from the GOALI Program.