Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Numerical study of TiO2-based nanofluids flow in microchannel heat sinks: T

Effect of the Reynolds number and the microchannel height
Víctor A. Martínez, Diego A. Vasco , Claudio M. García-Herrera, Roberto Ortega-Aguilera
⁎

Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, USACH, Av. Bernardo O’Higgins 3363, Santiago de Chile, Chile

HIGHLIGHTS

• Effect of temperature and TiO wt% on thermal conductivity and viscosity was tested.
• Both
2
properties variation with temperature and TiO wt% concentration was modeled.
• Laminar
2
flow of nanofluids in microchannels heat sink was computationally simulated.
• Nanofluids are more effective at low Reynolds numbers in microchannel heat sinks.
• Effect of the temperature-dependent properties is evident near to the heated wall.

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In the present work, we have studied the laminar (200 Re 1200) three-dimensional flow of a water-based
Nanofluids nanofluid in rectangular microchannels of constant wide cross section (283 µ m) and three different heights
Microchannel heat sink (800 µ m, 600 µ m, and 400 µ m). Moreover, we analyse the concentration of dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles
Thermal conductivity (<6 nm) on the thermal and hydraulic performance of heat sinks with the microchannels. The numerical analysis
Viscosity
required the use of experimental models of the viscosity and the thermal conductivity with respect to tem-
perature TiO2 nanoparticles concentration (1 wt% and 3 wt%). Using a code based on the finite volume method
to solve the transport equations that govern the studied flows, the friction factor, the Nusselt number, the
convective heat transfer coefficient, and the mean temperature of the hot wall have been determined. The results
show that both the use of nanofluids and the reduction of the microchannel height favour heat transfer at low
Reynolds numbers, an improvement that decreases as this parameter increases. With a nanoparticles con-
centration of 3 wt% and a Reynolds of 200, we found a maximum 19.66% increase of the convective heat
transfer coefficient with respect to the pure base fluid. However, also at low Reynolds, the greatest increases of
the skin friction coefficient were registered, reaching a maximum increase of 137.68% with respect to the pure
base fluid in the case of the 1 wt% nanofluid.

1. Introduction
The development of high power and speed electronic devices re-
quires the use of large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI), which implies
the increase in highly focused thermal loads as a result of the minia-
turization that they undergo. These charges must be dissipated effi-
ciently, since they are detrimental to their optimal performance [1].
The above represents a challenge from the standpoint of heat man-
agement, particularly when it is foreseen that the generation of 14 nm
chips would demand a heat removal of 100 W/cm2 [2], so compact and
efficient cooling systems would be required in a way that can provide
reliable functioning of those systems. Considering the above, and since
traditional heat removal systems such as the method of cooling by air,
which in spite of their multiple advantages (high reliability, low initial
maintenance and operating cost) became limited from the power dis-
sipation standpoint [3], with values between 10 W/cm2 and 50 W/cm2
[4]. Based on the definition of the Nusselt number (Nu), two ap-
proaches appear that allow increasing the heat removal rate: (i) Opti-
mizing the relation between the heat transfer surface and the volume of
the heat exchanger, decreasing its characteristic length, or (ii)
mproving the thermal conductivity of the system’s cooling fluid [5].
Tuckerman and Pease [1] were the first to study experimentally the
heat transfer from a heat sink made of silicone subjected to conditions
of laminar flow, succeeding in dissipating a power density of

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: diego.vascoc@usach.cl (D.A. Vasco).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114130
Received 14 December 2018; Received in revised form 7 June 2019; Accepted 13 July 2019
Available online 15 July 2019
1359-4311/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
V.A. Martínez, et al.
Nomenclature
Cf skin friction factor
Cp specific heat [J/kg K]
Dh equivalent hydraulic diameter [m]
Err relative error [%]
H microchannel height [m]
h coefficient of heat transfer by convection [W/m2 K ]
k thermal conductivity [W/mK]
L length of microchannel [mm]
m mass [g]
Nu Nusselt number
u velocity [m/s]
p pressure [Pa]
q heat flux [W/m2 ]
Re Reynolds number
T temperature [K]
x , y, z Cartesian coordinates
790 W/cm2 with channels whose hydraulic diameter was 85.8 µ m and
using water as refrigerant. These authors concluded that the use of
microchannels, ducts whose characteristic length is less than 1000 µ m
[6], is appropriate as a dissipation system.
On the other hand, to improve heat transfer, it is currently possible
to increase the thermal conductivity of the working fluid by adding low
concentrations (<1 vol%) of metallic and nonmetallic nanoparticles.
This nanoparticle/base fluid composite system was named nanofluid by
Choi et al. [7] and they have shown the ability of increasing the thermal
conductivity of the base fluid [8–10], presenting a strong relationship
between the magnitude of this improvement and the concentration of
dispersed nanoparticles [11–13], the size of the nanoparticles [14,15]
and the temperature [16,17]. Therefore, to increase the heat removal
rate of a dissipation system, a reasonable strategy is to implement the
flow of nanofluids through microchannels. Sarafraz et al. [18] studying
experimentally the thermal performance of a heat sink through mi-
crochannels with rectangular cross-section (0.25 × 0.4 mm2) using na-
nofluids synthesized with silver (Ag) nanoparticles dispersed in water,
found that for a concentration of 0.1 wt% the system registers a 47%
improvement of the convective heat transfer coefficient when subjected
to a constant heat flow at its base. However, due to the presence of
nanoparticles in the fluid, there was also an increased pressure drop
with respect to the concentration of dispersed nanoparticles, although
for low Reynolds values (100 < Re < 350). The difference between
the pressure drop recorded with water compared to that obtained with
the nanofluid at a 0.01 wt% concentration was less than 7%.
Peyghambarzadeh et al. [19] studied experimentally the heat
transfer by forced convection in a heat sink with 17 microchannels of
rectangular cross section and dimensions of 400 × 560 µ m2, using two
nanofluids as working fluids: Al2O3/water y CuO/water, forcing a la-
minar flow (500 < Re < 2000) through the heat sink, which was sup-
plied with a constant heat flow of 19 W/cm2 . Under these conditions
improvements of up to 49% were achieved in the convective heat
transfer coefficient with respect to water, using a 1 vol% concentration
of a Al2O3/water nanofluid, while using CuO/water (0.2 vol%) this
improvement amounted to 27%. An interesting result reported in this
paper is the relation between the Reynolds number and the heat
transfer performance, because increasing the Re values that perfor-
mance decreases, and that is attributed by the authors to the accumu-
lation and deposition of nanoparticles in the microchannels. Similar
results were those reported by Chein et al. [20], who by studying ex-
perimentally the flow of nanofluids synthesized with copper nano-
particles dispersed in water (0.2–0.4 vol%) through microchannels of
trapezoidal cross section, determined that the addition of nanoparticles
to water improves the heat absorption of the coolant, but the
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Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130
W microchannel width [m]
Greek symbols
mass concentration of dispersed nanoparticles
viscosity [Pa·s ]
viscous dissipation function
density [kg/m3]
shear stress [N/m2 ]
Subscripts
bf base fluid
c cold
np nanoparticle
nf nanofluid
w wall
nanoparticles did not contribute to extra heat absorption at high fluid
flow rates.
To determine the effect of the height of the microchannels on the
heat transfer, Manay et al. [21] investigated experimentally the process
of heat transfer by forced convection taking place in a microchannel of
variable height subjected to a constant heat flow of 80 kW/m2 in the
bottom surface, through which a nanofluid composed of TiO2 nano-
particles (0.25–2.0 vol%) and deionized water at concentrations
flowed. From the tests, they determined that regardless of the con-
centration of dispersed nanoparticles, the use of nanofluids in general
achieves higher heat transfer rates than pure water, but they estab-
lished that the heat transfer cannot be increased in microchannels with
water-based nanofluids whose concentration of dispersed nanoparticles
was equal to or greater than 2.0 vol%, as the increase in the viscosity of
the nanofluid intensifies the viscous sublayer. On the other hand, they
determined that the height of the microchannel has a direct impact on
the pressure drop, causing a 73% increase when the height was de-
creased from 300 µ m to 200 µ m. However, the heat transfer coefficient
also increased 30–45% when the height of the microchannel was re-
duced from 500 µ m to 200 µ m.
Although the experimental results available in relation to the im-
proved performance of heat sinks with microchannels due to the use of
nanofluids are promising, this information is still limited and dispersed
because the experimental conditions differ, so to go deeper into un-
derstanding the behavior of the flow as well as the heat transfer in the
microchannels it is basic to carry out numerical simulations of this
issue. To determine the effect of the use of nanofluids on heat transfer
as well as on characteristics of the flow in a rectangular microchannel of
430 × 280 µ m2, Mohammed et al. [22] studied numerically the perfor-
mance of the dissipator with microchannels using nanofluids synthe-
sized with alumina (Al2O3) nanoparticles suspended in water, at con-
centrations of 1–5 vol% The numerical simulation was performed by
discretizing the governing equations by means of the finite volume
method, with the hybrid discretization scheme, using the SIMPLE al-
gorithm to solve the velocity fields, showing that although the nano-
fluids are capable of improving the heat transfer coefficient of a dis-
sipator with microchannels, it depends on the volumetric fraction of
nanoparticles suspended in the base fluid, registering a maximum at
2.5 vol%, achieving it also with a slight increase of the friction factor.
Similar results were reported by Abdollahi et al. [23] who im-
plementing various aqueous base nanofluids with different concentra-
tions (0–2 vol%) as cooling fluid of a heat dissipator with micro-
channels of rectangular cross section, found that, in general, an increase
of the dispersed nanoparticles increases the Nusselt number, but to a
smaller extent, with the decrease of the average diameter of the
V.A. Martínez, et al.
nanoparticles. It should be noted that in contrast with Mohammed et al.
[22], who only implemented static models to determine the thermal
conductivity of the studied nanofluid, Abdollahi et al. [23] determined
the thermal conductivity of the studied nanofluid by means of a model
that does consider the role of Brownian motion on this property [24], in
addition to its static portion, adding both of them. Using this model,
these authors considered in part the effect of the temperature on the
thermal conductivity, but not the one it has on the viscosity of the
nanofluid, because the properties of the base fluid were assumed to be
constant. Shi et al. [25] simulated a laminar flow of water-based na-
nofluids with nanoparticles of Al2O3 in a rectangular cross section mi-
crochannel (215 × 341 µ m2) considering thetemperature-dependent
properties of the base fluid, and the Maxwell’s model to describe the
nanofluid’s thermal conductivity. Furthermore, this work proposes a
simulation model that allows capturing the distribution of the nano-
particle concentration in the flow field, which was found to be not
uniform, allowing the estimation with greater precision of the dis-
tribution of the nanofluid’s thermal conductivity in the studied domain.
The objective of the present article is to study numerically the effect
of the height of a microchannel on the thermal performance of a heat
sink subjected to a constant heat flow of 50 W/cm2 through the bottom
surface. To that end, we considered the effect of the temperature on the
thermal conductivity and the viscosity of nanofluids prepared with
nanoparticles of TiO2 (<6 nm) suspended in water at concentrations of
1 wt% and 3 wt% using the two-step method. The mathematical models
that describe these properties were incorporated in a validated code
based on the finite volume method, with which a laminar three-di-
mensional flow study was made for Reynolds numbers between 200 and
1200. Three rectangular microchannels with 283 µ m wide cross-section
and heights of 800 µ m, 600 µ m, and 400 µ m were analysed.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Materials
The studied nanofluids were synthesized through the dispersion of
titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles in the anatase crystal phase, with
99% purity, average diameter of 6 nm [26] and specific surface area of
356 m2/g, which was supplied by Mknano (Toronto, Canada). The base
fluid used was double distilled water.
2.2. Preparation of nanofluids
The preparation of the nanofluids used as working fluids in the heat
sink have been synthesized by the two-step ultrasonication method
(Fig. 1). The volume of base fluid to be used has been defined (115 mL
for measuring the thermal conductivity and 7 mL for measuring the
viscosity), to be then weighed on an analytical balance (Radwag, model
AS 82/220.R2), from which, after defining the concentration of interest
(1 wt% and 3 wt%), the mass of nanoparticles to be dispersed has been
determined through Eq. (1).
· mbf
mnp =
(1 ) (1)
Once the adequate mass of nanoparticles for the chosen con-
centration has been determined, they were dispersed in the base fluid
by means of a vertical axis ultrasonic probe (Dr. Hielscher GmbH,
model UP50H) whose working frequency is 30 kHz, exposing the
samples to a continuous ultrasonic irradiation process for 60 min, a
time that allows optimizing the conductivity of water due to the addi-
tion of TiO2 nanoparticles [27,26]. The sonication process was carried
out at constant temperature, connecting the container in which the
sample is deposited with a cooling circulation bath (JSR, model JSRC-
13C).
3
Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130
2.3. Thermal conductivity measurement
The heat transfer process studied in the numerical simulation was
performed considering the nanofluids’ properties variable with tem-
perature, which requires determining the behavior of the thermal
conductivity the nanofluid with respect to this variable, generating a
model that describes such behavior. The nanofluids’ thermal con-
ductivity measurements have been developed using the Decagon
Devices thermal properties analyzer model KD2-Pro, with the KS-1 li-
quid sample sensor, whose principle of operation corresponds to the hot
wire method, so it requires the measured sample to remain at constant
temperature and devoid of natural convection. The measurements of
the thermal conductivity are performed using the assembly illustrated
in Fig. 2, for six nominal temperature levels, from 278 K to 303 K, with
five temperature steps of 5 K between each level and making five
measurements of the property per temperature level.
2.4. Viscosity measurement
To determine the behavior of viscosity with respect to the tem-
perature of the nanofluids, a Brookfield model DV2T-LV viscosimeter
was used. The 7 mL sample was placed in the SC4-13R small sample
adapter, which is connected to the circulating bath to control the
sample’s temperature (Fig. 3). The SC14-18 spindle is used for mea-
suring the deformation rate (1/s), sheer stress (N/mm2), and visc-
osity (Pa·s), evaluating them for five temperature levels from 283 K to
323 K, with four temperature steps of 10 K between each level, using
variable spindle rotational speeds from 70 RPM to 100 RPM. It should
be noted that for each the measurements were made in triplicate.
3. Numerical analysis
3.1. Geometry, governing equations and boundary conditions
A heat sink has been considered that has symmetric rectangular
microchannels, shown schematically in Fig. 4, where the selected
computational domain is bound to one of its own cavities (Fig. 5). The
geometric dimensions of the microchannels are given in Table 1, where
the width, the height, and the length of microchannel 1 (MCH-1) were
determined based on the experimental work of Ho et al. [28], while for
microchannels 2 (MCH-2) and 3 (MCH-3), although the width and
lengths are those used by these authors, the heights are 600 µ m and
400 µ m, respectively. A constant heat flux is applied to the bottom wall
of the domain, while the top wall was kept at a constant temperature of
293.15 K. The remaining walls are considered to be perfectly insulated.
In the present study the conservation of mass, momentum, and
energy equations (considering the viscous dissipation term) in their
Fig. 1. Experimental ultrasonication setting. (1) Cooling circulation bath. (2)
Ultrasonic probe. (3) Nanofluid.
V.A. Martínez, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130

Fig. 5. Computational domain.

Fig. 2. Experimental setup for measuring the thermal conductivity. (1) Table 1
Circulating cooling bath. (2) Thermal properties analyzer. (3) KS1 sensor. Geometric dimensions of the studied microchannels.
Microchannel H µm W µm L mm

MCH-1 800 283 50

MCH-2 600 283 50
MCH-2 400 283 50

Table 2
Properties of titanium dioxide nanoparticles
[33].
Cp , J/kg K , kg/m3

710 3870

Table 3
Grid independence study.
MCH-1 MCH-2 MCH-3

Mesh Nu Error % Nu Error % Nu Error %

Fig. 3. Experimental setup for measuring the viscosity. (1) Circulating cooling 34 × 18 × 146 7.29522 – 6.79037 – 5.90315 –
bath. (2) Viscosimeter. (3) Nanofluid. (4) Spindle. (5) Cooling fluid. 50 × 26 × 218 7.69968 5.54419 7.19901 6.01799 6.43436 8.99863
58 × 30 × 254 7.87761 2.31092 7.39418 2.71108 6.73785 4.71679

( uk ui ) p ui
= +
xk xi xk xk (3)
Conservation of energy:

( ui T ) k T
= +
xi x i cp x i cp (4)
where is the viscous dissipation function and is defined by Eq. (5).

ui uj ui
= +
xj xi xj (5)
The associated boundary conditions are:
Fig. 4. Schematic of a heat sink with microchannels. Re·
u= at z=0
Dh (6)
traditional form (Eqs. (2)–(4)) comprise the mathematical model used
ui = 0 at x = 0, x = H, y = 0, y=W (7)
for predicting the behavior of the flow of the nanofluid, which is con-
sidered incompressible, Newtonian, and single phase. ui = 0 at x = 0, x = H, y = 0, y=W (8)
Conservation of mass:
T = Tc at z = 0, y=H (9)
( ui )
=0 T
xi (2) q = knf at y=0
y (10)
Conservation of momentum: q = 0 at x = 0, x = H, y = 0, y=W (11)

4
V.A. Martínez, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130

Fig. 6. Validation of the FVM code according to (a) the Nusselt number and (b) the mean friction factor obtained by Ho et al. [28].

Fig. 7. (a) Thermal conductivity, (b) relative thermal conductivity, (c) viscosity and (d) relative viscosity with respect to temperature of pure base fluid [37] and
nanofluids with 1 wt% and 3 wt%.

For the relative thermal conductivity (Fig. 7b), it was fitted to Eq. (13),
3.2. Thermophysical properties of nanofluids which is a linear model proposed by Palm et al. [30]. Both models have
been selected considering that they have been used to describe the
The thermophysical properties of the base fluid (double-distilled viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluids prepared with oxide-
water) are modified by the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles in mass based nanoparticles.
concentrations of 1 wt% and 3 wt%. According to this, the behavior of
the relative viscosity and relative thermal conductivity with respect to
nf
= a 0 + a1 T + a2 T 2
temperature of the prepared nanofluids has been determined. The data bf (12)
of relative viscosity has been fitted to Eq. (12), which is presented in
Fig. 7d and corresponds to the model proposed by Nguyen et al. [29].

5
V.A. Martínez, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130

Table 4 The properties of the base fluid have been modeled with respect to
Results of the fittings parameters of the viscosity and thermal conductivity temperature according to Eqs. (16)–(19) proposed by Zografos et al.
according to Eqs. (12) y (13). Standard error (SE) and determination coefficient [32] at atmospheric pressure and a temperature range of 273.2 K and
(R2). 600 K, while those of the nanoparticles are considered constant
Property Parameter S.E. R2 (Table 2) [33]. The thermophysical properties of the nanofluids have
been determined by applying a correction to the thermal conductivity
1%wt nf / bf a0 -35.12478 0.00913 0.99420 and the viscosity of the base fluid, which depend on temperature.
a1 0.23559
a2 −3.83676 × 10 4
bf = 3.8208 × 10 2 (T 252.33) 1
(16)
knf /kbf b0 0.07071 0.00897 0.93874
b1 3.17364 × 10 3
kbf = 4.2365 × 10 9T 3 1.1440 × 10 5T 2 + 7.1959 × 10 3T 0.63262

multirow590pt3%wt a0 −9.95202 0.00336 0.99961 (17)

nf / bf
a1 0.07658 6T 3 4T 2
bf = 3.0115 × 10 + 9.6272 × 10 0.11052T + 1022.4 (18)
a2 −1.32743 × 10 4

knf /kbf b0 −1.09226 0.01366 0.93817

b1 7.22651 × 10 3 Cp, bf = 1.7850 × 10 7T 3 1.9149 × 10 4T 2 + 6.7953 × 10 2T 3.7559
(19)

knf
= b0 + b1· T 3.3. Data processing
kbf (13)
where a0 , a1, a2 , b0 , and b1, are fitting constants that have been de- The computational domain has been subjected to a constant heat
termined for each group of measurements, which are only valid for the flux in the lower surface so the Nusselt number can be determined by
corresponding concentration level. Both the density (14) and the spe- the Eq. (20).
cific heat (15) of the nanofluid have been calculated considering the q Dh
conventional solid/liquid mixtures theory [31]. Nu =
knf (Tw Too) (20)
nf = np + bf (1 ) (14)
The coefficient of heat transfer by convection is given by (21).
np Cp, np + bf Cp, bf (1 ) Nu·knf
Cp, nf = h=
np + bf (1 ) (15) Dh (21)

Fig. 8. Variation of the Nusselt number for (a) MCH-

1, (b) MCH-2, (c) MCH-3, and (d) effect of the mi-
crochannel’s height for = 1%wt.

6
V.A. Martínez, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130

Fig. 9. Variation of the coefficient of heat transfer by convection for (a) 1 wt% and (b) 3 wt%.

Fig. 10. Variation of the relative Nusselt number for

(a) MCH-1, (b) MCH-2, (c) MCH-3, and (d) effect of
the microchannel’s height for = 1 wt%.

The friction factor is calculated by the Eq. (22). volume method (FVM) has been used for the resolution of the equations
w
of continuity, momentum, and energy [34]. To solve the pressure-speed
Cf = coupled system, the SIMPLE coupling algorithm has been used, where
1/2 nf U2 (22)
the applied sub-relaxation parameters are 0.5 for the speed, 0.3 for the
where pressure, and 0.1 for the temperature. On the other hand, the power-
law scheme is applied to discretize the diffusive and convective terms of
u
w = ·
(23) the transport equations involved. In the present study, it has been
x
considered that a solution converges when the maximum residual mass
is less than 10−6 for the speed in the x and y direction and less than
3.4. Numerical method 10−12 for the speed in the z-direction, while the criterion of con-
vergence used for the energy equation has been 10−6.
A home-made Open-MP parallelized code based on the finite

7
V.A. Martínez, et al.
3.5. Grid independence and code validation
A structured grid with rectangular hexahedral elements was used to
discretize the domain. A grid independence study was carried out based
on the average Nusselt number, to determine the number of elements
that produce precise results with the lowest requirement of computa-
tional resources. This test has been carried out with four grids im-
plemented in the MCH-1 case, with Re = 500 and q = 100 W/cm2.
Based on the results shown in Table 3, and since the difference between
the Nusselt number achieved with the third and the second grids is
lower than 5%, we decided to use a grid with 50 nodes in the direction
x, 26 in the y, direction and 218 in the z direction.
To establish the validity of the results obtained with the developed
numeric code, a comparison has been made with the experimental work
of Ho et al. [28], based on the Nusselt number and the Fanning friction
factor obtained under the same flow conditions with a constant heat
flow of 100 W/cm2 on the bottom of the microchannel, using water as
the cooling fluid. Based on the results shown in Fig. 6, it can be es-
tablished that the numerical results of the Nusselt number present a
lower mean relative error of 3.78%, when the Reynolds number is
lower than 900. While at higher Reynolds numbers (Re > 900), the
mean relative error increases to 11%. Regarding the fanning friction
factor a similar tendency was observed, the mean relative error is
9.79% for Re < 900, and 16.37% for Re > 900. The found difference of
the mean relative errors may be explained by the acquired relevance of
the turbulent effects at higher Reynolds numbers [35].
8
Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130
Fig. 11. Variation of the mean temperature of the
bottom wall for (a) MCH-1, (b) MCH-2, (c) MCH-3
and (d) effect of microchannel height for = 1 wt%.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Experimental results
From the measurements of the thermal conductivity as well as of the
viscosity of nanofluids prepared at a mass concentration of 1 wt% and
3 wt%, the curves are obtained with respect to the temperature of those
relative properties (Fig. 7b and d). These results show that compared to
the base fluid, an average increase of 1.62% in thermal conductivity is
registered for the nanofluid prepared with a concentration of 1 wt%, an
improvement that rises to 5.65% for that synthesized at a concentration
of 3 wt% of TiO2 nanoparticles. Regarding the effect of temperature on
this property, it is found that although between 275 K and 290 K a
combined effect is seen, that is, an increase and decrease of thermal
conductivity with respect to temperature, above 290 K the behavior
becomes increasing until 305 K, temperature at which the last mea-
surement was carried out. Regarding the measurements made of the
viscosity of the studied nanofluids, it is again found that there is a
combined effect with respect to temperature (increase and decrease),
with very insignificant increases in the magnitude of this property with
respect to the base fluid, recording a maximum increase of 2.86% at
313.6 K for the nanofluid synthesized at a concentration of 1 wt%,
while for that with a concentration of 3 wt% the maximum increase
registered was 9.45% at a temperature of 293.4 K. It should be noted
that the behavior exhibited by the effective viscosity of the studied
nanofluids does not imply that the temperature does not have an effect,
but simply that it affects the viscosity of both water and the nanofluid
[36]. Therefore, an increase in the effective viscosity with respect to the
temperature is explained by a predominance of the effect of this
V.A. Martínez, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130

Fig. 12. Variation of the Fanning friction coefficient for (a) MCH-1, (b) MCH-2, (c) MCH-3 and (d) effect of the height of the microchannel for 1 wt%.

Table 5 4.2. Numerical results

Results of the fittings parameters of relative Nusselt number according to Eq.
(24). Standard error (SE) and determination coefficient (R2). To study the heat transfer process that occurred in a heat sink with
Microchannel A B C S.E. microchannels and the combined effect of the height of the micro-
R2
channel and that of the concentration of nanoparticles (TiO2) dispersed
MCH-1 1%wt 0.29020 311.73249 0.98221 0.00353 0.99781 in water-based nanofluids, we have carried out simulations of three
3%wt 0.20119 753.05881 0.98295 0.00557 0.99126 microchannels (MCH-1, MCH-2 and MCH-3) subjected to a constant
MCH-2 1%wt 0.18615 309.94451 0.99803 0.00189 0.99847 heating rate of 50 W/cm2, using 1 wt% and 3 wt% mass concentrations
3%wt 0.15856 425.65229 1.03999 0.00090 0.99963 of nanofluids as cooling fluids with variable properties with respect to
MCH-3 1%wt 0.16503 398.80714 0.99265 0.00254 0.99717 temperature. The nanofluid enters the microchannels at a temperature
3%wt 0.18280 599.43224 1.01311 0.00332 0.99643 of 293.15 K, with a constant Reynolds number (100 Re 1200),
which was studied for each microchannel and nanoparticle concentra-
tion level, obtaining for each case the corresponding velocity and
variable on the viscosity of water in comparison with the effect on the temperature field, from which the Nusselt number, the convective heat
viscosity of the nanofluid, even though individually the viscosity of transfer coefficient, the Fanning friction factor, and the average surface
both the water and the studied nanofluids decreases strictly with the temperature have been determined (Figs. 8–12). To appreciate the ef-
temperature increase (Fig. 7c). Similarly, the above reasoning may fect of the microchannel’s height, the simulation performed with the
explain the behavior registered by the effective thermal conductivity 1 wt% nanofluid concentration has been selected arbitrarily. From the
where, despite registering a decrease with respect to temperature be- results shown in Fig. 8a–c, it is corroborated that for the three micro-
tween 285 K and 290 K, individually the thermal conductivity of both channel heights studied, the Nusselt number presents a strictly in-
the base fluid as well as of the nanofluids showed a strictly increasing creasing behavior with respect to the Reynolds number for all the na-
behavior with respect to temperature (Fig. 7a). noparticle concentrations, in addition to the base fluid, registering in
The experimental results were fitted to Eqs. (12) and (13) as ap- the latter case a magnitude of 5.15 for Re = 200, and 10.58 for
propriate, in the temperature interval between 290 K and 305 K for Re = 1200, the above in the highest microchannel (MCH-1). In general,
relative thermal conductivity and 290 K and 325 K for relative viscosity, it is seen that the use of nanofluids as cooling fluids promotes the heat
which correspond to the operating temperatures of the studied micro- transfer in microchannels, regardless of their height. However, this
channels. The curve fitting of the experimental data has provided the improvement is not sustained with respect to the Reynolds number; in
constants of each correlation, whose values are given in Table 4. fact, as shown in Fig. 8a, for microchannel MCH-1 the addition of na-
noparticles at 1 wt% concentration increases the Nusselt number by

9
V.A. Martínez, et al.
13.87% compared to the base fluid for Re = 200, an improvement that
decreases to less than 5% when it is considered that the Nusselt number
is independent of the nanoparticle concentration, which in this case
occurs starting from Re = 500, while for the case of the nanofluid with
a 3 wt% of dispersed nanoparticles this phenomenon is recorded from
Re = 1000, in spite of getting a 14.24% increase at Re = 200 with re-
spect to the base fluid. The above suggests that the use of nanofluids as
cooling fluids is desirable from the view point of heat transfer when the
microchannel operates at low Reynolds numbers, that is, the addition of
TiO2 nanoparticles increases heat transfer significantly when the pre-
dominant heat transfer mechanism is conduction, an improvement that
is not relevant when convection predominates in the heat transfer. A
similar behavior is seen in Fig. 8b and c, where the Nusselt number for
the nanofluids with 1 wt% and 3 wt% becomes independent of the
concentration of dispersed nanoparticles for Reynolds 400 and 1200,
respectively, in the case of microchannel MCH-2, and for Re = 500 and
Re = 1000, respectively, in the case of microchannel MCH-3.
Regarding the influence of the microchannel’s height on the Nusselt
number, Fig. 8d shows that a decrease of the height negatively affects
the Nusselt number, a difference that becomes greater as the Reynolds
number increases. That is why for Re = 200, decreasing the height of
the microchannel by 200 µ m reduces the Nusselt number by 5.12% a
difference that increases until it reaches a maximum of 9.97% for
Re = 1000. Similarly, for the same nanofluid, decreasing the height of
the microchannel by 400 µ m reduces the Nusselt number by 8.33% for
Re = 200, a difference that increases until it reaches a maximum of
18.52% for Re = 1000. The above indicates that decreasing the height
of a microchannel and therefore Dh inecessarily implies reducing the
convective influence of the studied heat transfer process, giving greater
importance to conduction. It should be noted that the above does not
entail a decrease of the transferred heat, on the contrary, as shown in
Fig. 9a and b, the convective heat transfer coefficient in general in-
creases with the reduction of the equivalent hydraulic diameter,
reaching 2.91% in the case of the nanofluid with a 1 wt% concentration
when the height of the microchannel is decreased by 200 µ m, an im-
provement that reaches 9.43% when the height is reduced to 400 µ m.
The Nusselt number is proportional to Dh , which is reduced successively
by 8.01% and 13.81% for the microchannel 2 and 3, respectively. In
this way, since the increase of the convective heat transfer coefficient is
less than the decrease of Dh , the Nusselt number increases with the
height of the microchannel, a conclusion that fully fits that found in the
available literature [38,39,21].
Considering the behavior of the Nusselt number with respect to the
Reynolds number and the effect of the concentration of nanoparticles,
in Fig. 10, the relative Nusselt number is exposed, that is, the ratio
between the Nusselt numbers obtained with the nanofluid and the base
fluid at the corresponding Reynolds number. This Nusselt number ratio
strictly decreases as the Reynolds number is increased, exhibiting an
asymptotic behavior. In all the studied cases, the nanofluids with a TiO2
concentration of 3%wt presents higher improvements. According to
such a tendency, the relative Nusselt number as a function of the
Reynolds number has been modeled through Eq. (24) with adjustable
parameters A, B and C (Table 5).
Nunf Re / B
= A·e +C
Nubf (24)
Based on the obtained adjustment results, it has been found that
there is a Reynolds number after which the addition of TiO2 nano-
particles does not improve the Nusselt number. The asymptotic beha-
vior of the proposed model corresponds this observation, i.e., the
parameter C is close to unity in all the modeled cases. The parameter A
corresponds to the maximum improvement of the Nusselt number due
to the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles, in the range of Reynolds number
of 200–1200. Finally, the parameter B represents a critical value of the
Reynolds number, from which the implementation of nanofluids as a
10
Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130
cooling fluid does not produce a significant increase in the Nusselt
number, since only a 36.79% of the maximum Nusselt number im-
provement (A) has been reached. Therefore, parameter B is a mea-
surement of the effectiveness of using nanofluids based on TiO2 and
water in microchannel heat sinks. Despite, the height of the micro-
channel affects the value of parameter B, it has not been possible to
verify a clear relationship between them.
Another variable to consider when evaluating the performance of
nanofluids as cooling agents in microchannels is the average tempera-
ture of the bottom wall, a variable presented in Fig. 11a–c for each
nanoparticle concentration with respect to the Reynolds number,
showing that for increasing this parameter, the average temperature of
the bottom of the microchannels decreases strictly, decreasing with the
addition of nanoparticles to the base fluid, which is most significant at
low Reynolds numbers for all the microchannels studied. That is how,
for example, for the microchannel with the greatest height (MCH-1),
the addition of nanoparticles at a 1 wt% concentration induces a de-
crease of the average temperature of the base of the microchannel of
8.08 K at Re = 200 with respect to the base fluid, and a decrease of only
0.33 K by increasing the Reynolds to 1200. A similar behavior is re-
corded for the synthesized nanofluid with a 3 wt% concentration
where, referred to the base fluid, the nanofluid produces a decrease of
the average temperature of the bottom wall of the microchannel of
10.78 K for Re = 200, a decrease that is only 1.72 K when Re = 1200.
The behavior described above is also seen for microchannels MCH-2
and MCH-3, from which it can be established that although the addition
of nanoparticles to water decreases the temperature of the bottom wall
of the at equal Reynolds numbers, this improvement is more significant
for low Reynolds numbers, that is, when conduction is prevalent in the
heat transfer. However, further to the above, it is seen that the lower
temperatures of the bottom wall of the microchannels were recorded, in
all cases, for Re = 1200, that is, when neither the addition of nano-
particles nor the height of the microchannel are important, as shown in
Fig. 11d, where for Re= 1200 and referred to MCH-1, decreasing by
200 µ m and 400 µ m the height of the microchannel only produces a
temperature decrease of 0.40 K and 0.85 K, respectively.
Fig. 12a–c show the behavior of the Fanning friction coefficient with
respect to the Reynolds number for the three studied microchannels,
presenting in each of them the three fluids used for cooling, to verify
the influence of the concentration of nanoparticles on that variable.
These figures show a decreasing behavior of the coefficient of the
Fanning friction coefficient with respect to the Reynolds number, with
an asymptotic tendency in all the modeled microchannels and con-
centration levels of nanoparticles, suggesting that this variable is in-
dependent of the Reynolds number when it is sufficiently high. As re-
gards the addition of nanoparticles to the base fluid, it is seen that
regardless of the height of the microchannel, this addition induces an
increase of the friction coefficient, which decreases with a growing
Reynolds number. This is how, for example, for the MCH-1 micro-
channel (Fig. 12a), the addition of nanoparticles at a 1 wt% con-
centration increases the coefficient of friction by 137.68% at Re = 200,
a difference that decreases continuously to become less than 5%, where
it is considered that this variable is independent of the concentration of
nanoparticles, a phenomenon that happened at Re = 600 for this case,
while for the nanofluid with a concentration of 3 wt%, this behavior
was recorded at Re = 400. It should be noted that although with the
microchannels MCH-2 and MCH-3 no independence of the coefficient of
friction under the criterion stated above was recorded, the results show
a trend that approaches significantly the one mentioned above. In re-
lation to the increase of the coefficient of friction, it is found that the
maximum, for all the modelled heights, was recorded at a nanoparticle
concentration of 1 wt% for the entire range of Reynolds numbers stu-
died. This is explained in part because, referred to the fluid base, the
addition of nanoparticles at a concentration of 1 wt%, induces a de-
crease in the average flow speed, because it depends directly on the
viscosity of the fluid (6), which for microchannel MCH-1 is on the
V.A. Martínez, et al.
average equal to 0.000872 Pa·s for a concentration of 1 wt% and
Re = 200, while for water the viscosity is 0.000902 Pa·s, which implies
that the nanofluid has on the average a 3.25% lower viscosity, since due
to the increased thermal conductivity of the nanofluid, its average
temperature was 295.14 K, while that of the base fluid was 294.15 K for
the same Reynolds number. Similarly, the decrease in the friction
coefficient due to the increased concentration of nanoparticles at 3 wt%
with respect to the synthesized nanofluid at a concentration of 1 wt%,
for the same case explained above (MCH-1), at a Reynolds number of
200, the nanofluid with a concentration of 3 wt% has an average
viscosity of 0.000978 Pa·s, which represents a 12.11% increase with
respect to the nanofluid with a concentration of 1 wt%, which is be-
cause the nanofluid with higher concentration of nanoparticles has an
average temperature in the microchannel of 294.62 K.
Regarding the influence of the height of the microchannel on the
coefficient of friction (Fig. 12d), it is seen that for Reynolds lower than
400, the decrease of the height of the microchannel induces a decrease
of the coefficient of friction, a reduction which rises to 19.27% when
the height is decreased by 200 µ m and to 33.58% when it is reduced by
400 µ m, in the case of MCH-1. However, for Reynolds numbers that are
the same as or greater than 400, an increase in the coefficient of friction
is recorded with the reduction of the height of the microchannel,
reaching for the case mentioned above, a maximum increase of 28.76%
when the height was reduced by 200 µ m and 37.29% with a reduction
of 400 µ m, both registered for a Reynolds of 1000.
5. Conclusions
In the present study we have investigated the effect of the con-
centration of nanoparticles of TiO2 in water based nanofluids and the
height of the microchannel (800 µ m, 600 µ m and 400 µ m) on the
thermal performance of a heat sink, by making a numerical study of a
three-dimensional laminar flow (200 Re 1200) at concentrations of
1 wt% and 3 wt%. The simulations were developed considering tem-
perature dependent thermophysical properties of the base fluid as well
as the nanofluids. Specifically, we studied experimentally the behavior
of the viscosity and the thermal conductivity with respect to the tem-
perature to determine the models that describes them. From the results,
it can be established that using nanofluids as coolants in heat sinks with
microchannels in general favors heat transfer significantly when the
predominant transfer mechanism is conduction, which happens at low
Reynolds numbers, recording a maximum increase of the convective
heat transfer coefficient of 19.66% compared to the base fluid for mi-
crochannel MCH-3, with a concentration of 3 wt% and Re = 200. With
respect to the effect of the height of the microchannel, it is seen that
when it is decreased and thereby Dh is reduced, the Nusselt number
undergoes a decline in its magnitude, which indicates that this favors
heat transfer by conduction, reducing the importance of convection,
which is not detrimental to heat transfer, since the convective heat
transfer coefficient generally increases with decreasing the hydraulic
diameter. In spite of the improvements achieved in heat transfer with
the addition of nanoparticles, as well as with the decrease of the height
of the microchannel, which is favored at low Reynolds numbers in these
cases, also the largest increases in the coefficient of friction were ob-
tained due to the addition of nanoparticles, for the three microchannel
heights studied, recording a maximum increase with respect to the base
fluid of 137.68% for the case of the nanofluid with 1 wt% in micro-
channel MCH-1 and Re = 200.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge with thanks the support through Proyecto
Código 051916VC_DAS, Dirección de Investigación, Científica y
Tecnológica, Dicyt, Universidad de Santiago de Chile.
11
Applied Thermal Engineering 161 (2019) 114130
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the
online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.
114130.
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