Analysis of segmented heat exchanger based on PDMS nanocomposite with enhanced thermal properties for heat dissipation

• Grant number: 23/14537-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 15, 2024
• End date: April 14, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Transport Phenomena
• Principal Investigator: Elaine Maria Cardoso
• Grantee: Raíssa Guimarães Mendonça Corrêa
• Supervisor: Reinaldo Rodrigues de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental São João da Boa Vista. São João da Boa Vista , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/03492-3 - Forced convection computational analysis in PDMS micro pin fin heat sink, BP.IC

Abstract

This research project proposes a computational study of single-phase flow in compact heat sinks based on segmented microchannels. Segmented heat sinks associated with high-performance refrigerants can be applied to the avionics of military and/or commercial aircraft, as well as in the aerospace area, given their ability to dissipate heat in reduced volumes, minimizing material used in their manufacture and inventory of refrigerant in the system. This work will analyze the thermal and fluid dynamic behavior of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) heat sinks with incorporation of hexagonal boron nitride nanoparticles (h-BN) to improve the resulting composite's thermal properties. For the present analysis, deionized water will be considered as the working fluid. The numerical analysis will be carried out using CFD solvers available in commercial or open-source software, considering as input data the same conditions used for the experimental tests. In order to ensure the reliability of the results, a comparison of the data obtained, numerically, for pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient, with experimental results will be carried out. The contribution of this work consists of obtaining results of interest to the cooling industry for electronic components and machine thermal control equipment in general, as well as deepening knowledge about the use of nanocomposites, with increased thermal properties, as a base material for compact heat sinks. The choice of Dr. Reinaldo R. de Souza, member of IN+/IST, as supervisor of the internship abroad is due to his work in the area of transport phenomena at liquid-solid interfaces, from the macro to microscale, and the development of techniques for diagnosis for the characterization of these phenomena, for different applications.