Numerical study on the convective heat transfer of nanofluid in a triangular minichannel heat sink using the Eulerian–Eulerian two-phase model

In this paper, the laminar forced convection heat transfer of the water-based nanofluid inside a minichannel heat sink is studied numerically. An Eulerian two-fluid model is considered to simulate the nanofluid flow inside the triangular heat sink and the governing continuity, momentum, and energy equations for both phases are solved using the finite volume method. Comparisons of the Nusselt number predicted by the Eulerian–Eulerian model with the experimental data available in the literature demonstrate that the simulation results are in excellent agreement with the experimental data and the maximum deviation from experimental data is 5%. The results show that the heat sink with nanofluid has a better heat transfer rate in comparison with the water-cooled heat sink. Also, the heat transfer enhancement increases with an increase in Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume concentration. In addition, the friction factor increases slightly for nanofluid-cooled minichannel heat sink.