Thermal performance of phase change nano-emulsion in a rectangular minichannel with wall conduction effect

Abstract The minichannel heatsink is one of the small heat exchangers, having high heat capacity and being able to remove substantial heat within a very small volume, in line with the current demand for heat dissipation of electronic components. In the present study, the convection cooling characteristics in a rectangular minichannel considering wall conduction effect was investigated numerically. Numerical simulations are performed under 2% and 10% volume fractions of PCM particles (n-eicosan). The results reveal that the axial wall conduction plays a more pivotal role in the minichannels at the lower Reynolds number. Besides, the employment of phase change nano-emulsion in the working fluid in the rectangular minichannel suppresses the wall temperature and improves the heat transfer performance up to 4.23% and 9.36%, respectively, compared with the application of pure water. In addition, it is demonstrated that a high concentration of PCM particles may have detrimental effect on pressure drop and extended wall heat dissipation efficiency under certain circumstances thus the concentration of PCM particles needs careful selection.