Experimental Study of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Phenomena in Kerosene-Graphene Nanoplatelets in a Mini Channel Heat Sink

Our work intends to conduct experiments on kerosene-graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) nanofluid in a mini channel heat sink (MCHS) in two concentrations of graphene to verify the heat transfer and other hydrothermal phenomena. Many experiments have already been carried out on cooling electronic devices using mini channels along with various water-based nanofluids. The experiments with kerosene-GNP nanofluid are conducted in two different weight percentages of graphene, 0.01 and 0.03. The surfactant used for best visual stability is oleylamine, with an optimum mass ratio of 0.6 between it and graphene nanoparticles. A Peltier heater is attached to the bottom of the mini channel and provided with three different heat supplies of 8 W, 10 W, and 12 W, respectively, by varying the current and voltage of the direct current (DC) source. The GNP-based nanofluid is passed at three different flow rates of 0.3 l/min, 0.4 l/min, and 0.5 l/min. The temperature values at the inlet, outlet, and the other two passes are collected in a data acquisition (DAQ) system by imposing four k-type thermocouples. Pressure transducers are placed at the inlet and outlet of the mini channel to read the pressure reading for the pressure drop calculation. A total of 27 experiments were carried out with varying flow rates, heat supply, and nanoparticle concentration. For each parameter, the ratio of the total heat transfer coefficient to the pressure drop (h/∆P) is estimated. Our observation concluded that there is an improvement in thermal performance by using kerosene-GNP nanofluid as a coolant instead of pure kerosene. It is also observed that the heat transfer coefficient increases the nanofluid discharge rate and nanoparticle concentration and increases pressure drop in the channel.