The Capability Study of Practical Working Fluids in the Desktop-CPU Cooling System

Abstract

This work was aimed to investigate the cooling capability of different practical working fluid; deionized water, coolant (ethylene glycol and deionized water), nanofluid (Copper/deionized water and Copper/coolant) in the CPU liquid-cooling system. Three different nanofluid concentrations were applied in both Cu/deionized water and Cu/coolant as 0.86%w/w, 1.71%w/w, and 2.57%w/w. The liquid-cooling system was installed inside a desktop personal computer. The computer was placed in the room controlled in three temperatures: 22, 26 and 30 Celsius. The CPU was controlled to operate at the maximum operation condition by the program; Cinebench R15 trademark, in 1 hour for each experiment, three repeating investigations for each working fluid were conducted. When each working fluid was applied to the cooling system, the values of CPU surface temperatures, the liquid temperatures and electricity consumption were recorded and compared with the original CPU cooling system combining of the heat sink and fan. From the experimental results, the highest average CPU surface temperature occurred at 67.45, 70.72 and 73.80 Celsius, respective;y, when the heat sink and fan were applied, while the original cooling system consumed power at 0.0900 kWh. The liquid cooling system using the 2.57%w/w copper-water nanofluid resulted in the lowest CPU surface temperature at 45.76, 54.40 and 55.26 Celsius, respectively and the average electricity consumption was at 0.0993 kWh. The efficiency information of the CPU cooling system could be used in selecting the appropriate cooling system fluid which decreases the CPU surface temperatures and results in an extended use of the computer.