FLOW BOILING HEAT TRANSFER OF THERMAL NANOFLUIDS IN MICROCHANNELS

Thermal nanofluids, suspensions containing high conductivity nanomaterials, are proposed as advanced heat transfer fluids in this project to achieve high heat flux cooling of micro systems such as the micro-electronics micro-mechanical-systems and chemical micro-reactors. As most of the research on thermal nanofluids has been focused on large channels, a systematic investigation of the flow boiling heat transfer of stable thermal nanofluids in microchannels (0.01-1 mm) is proposed. Compared with pure liquid flow in microchannels, such novel application of thermal nanofluids could further enhance heat transfer and overcome some associated problems in microchannels especially the dryout phenomena. The project will be primarily experimental but will incorporate some modelling to help to understand boiling mechanisms.