Aluminum nitride as an alternative ceramic for fabrication of microchannel heat exchangers: A numerical study

Mehdi Fattahi, Kourosh Vaferi, Mohammad Vajdi, Farhad Sadegh Moghanlou, Abbas Sabahi Namini, Mehdi Shahedi Asl*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

80 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Advances in micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) necessitate utilizing efficient types of materials which are capable of dissipating high heat transfer rates. Aluminum nitride (AlN) as a member of advanced ceramics family, offers remarkable thermal conductivity which makes it suitable candidate in manufacturing of special and high-tech heat exchangers. The present work aims to investigate the application of a micro-sized heat exchanger made of AlN. According to the performed numerical simulations using Comsol Multiphysics, AlN made heat exchanger showed remarkable heat transfer enhancement of 59%, compared to the Al2O3 made one. Such a considerable improvement can be attributed to the higher thermal conductivity of AlN in comparison with Al2O3. The effectiveness of the heat exchangers were calculated for both AlN and Al2O3 made heat exchangers, and a 26% improvement was observed using aluminum nitride.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11647-11657
Number of pages11
JournalCeramics International
Volume46
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Advanced ceramics
  • Aluminum nitride
  • Heat exchanger
  • Heat transfer
  • Numerical method

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