Experimental Investigation on Heat Transfer Enhancements in Laminar Flow with Ferrofluids - Application to Power Electronics Cooling

This paper presents an experimental investigation on forced convective heat transfers in a ferrofluid with the presence of a magnetic field. The duct is square, the flow is laminar and the wall heat flux is uniform. The effects of the direction of the magnetic field and of the thermal entrance region are studied. The results show that a better enhancement is made when the magnetic field and the heat flux are perpendicular. Moreover, the effect of the magnetic field seems to be more interesting for a fully developed flow. In the end of the paper, the thermal characterization of a 3D power electronics module cooled by the same ferrofluid is carried out.