A study of fluid coolant with carbon nanotube suspension for microchannel coolers

Abstract

In this work, silicon microchannel coolers were made using the deep ion reactive etching (DIRE) technique. Stable and homogeneous carbon nanotube (CNT) suspension was also prepared. Meanwhile, a closed-loop cooling test system was developed to investigate the heat removal of the silicon microchannel cooler with different coolants. The experimental setup included a test module, a minipump for providing controllable flow, and a fan system for cooling the circular fluid. Beside the inlet and outlet of the test module, two thermocouples and pressure gauges were set up to measure the temperature and pressure of the fluids. The heat removal of the silicon microchannel cooler using different CNT volume fraction of suspension coolant was studied. The results show that the microchannel cooler with CNT suspension as coolant could strengthen the heat removal capability of microchannel cooler. In addition to heat transfer enhancement, the microchannel cooler with CNT suspension coolant did not produce extra pressure drop in the present study.