A CFD modeling of CPU cooling by eco-friendly nanofluid and fin heat sink passive cooling techniques

In this research, a three-dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model-based Finite Volume Method (FVM) is performed to study the influence of single-phase green graphene/water nano -fluid and two designs (snaky and sinusoidal spiral) of fin on the thermal management of a CPU in the electronic package. The thermophysical properties of eco-friendly nanofluid described by User Defined Function (UDF) code in ANSYS-Fluent 2021 R2 package. Besides the fin design, the impact of heat sink's (fin and solid block) materials (silver, copper, and nickel), and the variations of nanoparticles volume frac-tion on the CPU cooling, pressure changes, pumping power, convective heat transfer coefficient, and ther-mal efficiency of fin heat sink have been investigated. Outcomes indicate that the sinusoidal spiral fin design is more efficient than the snaky-one. The number of sine arcs on the fins has a direct relationship with the heat transfer rate and an inverse relationship with the pressure changes. Because of the higher thermal conductivity of silver, the silver heat sink is more efficient than the copper and nickel heat sinks for CPU cooling. Increasing the wavelength of spiral and snaky fins led to a 7, 11.5K temperature reduc-tion in the center of the liquid block heat sink. Additionally, the best thermal performance of liquid block heat sink is about 6.82% related to the nanofluid with a concentration of u = 0.100%, while it is about 6.83% for the nanofluid with a concentration of u = 0.075%.(c) 2022 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model and finite volume method are used to investigate the impact of graphene-water nanofluid and two different fin designs on the thermal management of a CPU. The results show that the sinusoidal spiral fin design is more efficient and the silver heat sink performs better than copper and nickel ones. Increasing the wavelength of the fins decreases the temperature of the liquid block heat sink. The concentration of the nanofluid also influences the thermal performance of the heat sink.