Performance evaluation of nanofluid-enhanced biomimetic liquid-cooled heat sinks for efficient thermal management applications

Babar, H, Wu, H, Eltaweel, M and Zhang, W ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3053-2388, 2025. Performance evaluation of nanofluid-enhanced biomimetic liquid-cooled heat sinks for efficient thermal management applications. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 252: 127498. ISSN 0017-9310

Preview

Text 2467676_Zhang.pdf - Published version Download (17MB) | Preview

Abstract

Efficient thermal management is critical in high-power-density systems found in electronics, electric vehicles, renewable energy devices, aerospace platforms, and data centres. This study aims to enhance thermal performance through the development of nature-inspired heat sink geometries integrated with advanced nanofluids. Two novel biomimetic configurations, Inline Arranged Airfoil Integrated Curvilinear Pin-Fin (IACPF) and Inline Arranged Airfoil Integrated Corrugated Curvilinear Pin-Fin (AICCPF) were experimentally evaluated across heating powers of 75–300 W and flow rates ranging from 200 to 450 mL/min. These heat sinks were tested using mono and hybrid nanofluids formulated with silver (Ag), silicon carbide (SiC), and beryllium oxide (BeO) nanoparticles, chosen for their high thermal conductivity, dispersion stability, and economic viability. The experimental methodology focused on assessing thermal and hydraulic performance through key parameters including Nusselt number, thermal resistance, wall temperature, and pressure drop. Comparative study showed that, using water as the working fluid at 75 W, the AICCPF heat sink delivered a 10.23% improvement in Nusselt number over the IACPF. When benchmarked against a conventional straight-channel heat sink, the AICCPF design at 150 W demonstrated a 103% enhancement in Nusselt number, confirming its geometric effectiveness. Among nanofluids, the highest convective enhancement was achieved using Ag/SiC hybrid nanofluid, yielding a peak improvement of 22.29% in the AICCPF configuration. Pressure drops remained within manageable limits, with a maximum increase of 15.86%. These findings demonstrate that combining biomimetic heat sink architectures with thermally optimised nanofluids achieves high thermal performance while maintaining acceptable hydraulic penalties. The proposed approach offers scalable, energy-efficient solutions for next-generation cooling applications.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
Creators:	Babar, H., Wu, H., Eltaweel, M. and Zhang, W.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	December 2025
Volume:	252
ISSN:	0017-9310
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.127498 DOI 2467676 Other
Rights:	© 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	11 Jul 2025 09:22
Last Modified:	11 Jul 2025 09:22
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53934

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads