Thermal Management of Vehicular Payloads Using Nanofluid Augmented Coolant Rail - Modeling and Analysis

Various payloads, such as electronic systems, have become an integral part of modern military ground vehicles. These payloads often feature high thermal density that need to be effectively managed, especially under demanding operating conditions, to maintain system reliability. This paper describes the modeling and analysis of a nanofluid augmented coolant rail combined with thermoelectric devices to address the cooling challenges posed by these payloads. A sensitivity analysis has been performed to investigate the nanoparticle enhancement model. Numerical results obtained show that the convective heat transfer coefficient can be enhanced by up to 16% with the augmentation of nanoparticles into the base fluid. The results also show that the peak computer temperature is rather insensitive to the complexity of the model used and that the proposed system provides cooling performance which would not be possible with traditional air-cooled heat sinks.