Effects of geometrical parameters on the flow and heat transfer characteristics in trapezoidal-corrugated channel using nanofluid

In this article, laminar forced convection heat transfer of copper–water nanofluid in trapezoidal-corrugated channel has been numerically investigated. The two-dimensional governing continuity, momentum and energy equations in body-fitted coordinates are discretized using finite volume approach and solved iteratively using SIMPLE technique. In this study, the Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume fractions are in the ranges of 100–700 and 0–5%, respectively. The effect of geometrical parameters such as the amplitude and wavelength of the corrugated channel, nanoparticle volume fraction and Reynolds number on the velocity vectors, temperature contours, pressure drop and average Nusselt number have been presented and analyzed. The results show that the average Nusselt number enhances with increase in nanoparticles volume fraction and with the amplitude of corrugated channel but this enhancement accompanied by increases in pressure drop. In addition, as the wavelength of corrugated channel decreases, the average Nusselt number increases and the pressure drop decreases.     

Numerical investigation of the MHD forced convection and entropy generation in a straight duct with sinusoidal walls containing water–Al2O3 nanofluid

This paper examines forced convection heat transfer and entropy generation of a nanofluid laminar flow through a horizontal channel with wavy walls in the presence of magnetic field, numerically. The Newtonian nanofluid is composed of water as base fluid and Al₂O₃ as nanoparticle which is exposed to a transverse magnetic field with uniform strength. The inlet nanofluid with higher temperature enters the cool duct and heat is exchanged along the walls of a wavy channel. The effects of the dominant parameters including Reynolds number, solid volume fraction, Hartmann number, and different states of amplitude sine waves are studied on the local and average Nusselt number, skin friction, and total entropy generation. Computations show excellent agreement of the present study with the previous literature. The computations indicate that with the increasing strength of a magnetic field, Nusselt number, skin friction, and total entropy generation are increased. It is found that increasing the solid volume fraction of nanoparticles will increase the Nusselt number and total entropy generation, but its effect on the skin friction is negligible. Also, results imply that increasing amplitude sine waves of the geometry has incremental effect on both Nusselt number and skin friction, but its effect on the total entropy generation is not so tangible.     

Al2O3–Water nanofluid heat transfer and entropy generation in a ribbed channel with wavy wall in the presence of magnetic field

In this article, a parametric study is conducted to evaluate heat transfer enhancement in a ribbed channel containing Al₂O₃–Water nanofluid with wavy wall. The physical domain is under the influence of the magnetic field that creates a negative force against the working fluid to move. Nanofluid with higher temperature enters the cool ribbed duct and heat is exchanged along the walls of channel. The effects of the dominant parameters including number of the blocks, solid volume fractions of nanofluid, Hartmann number, Reynolds number, and different states of amplitude sine waves are numerically tested on the local and average Nusselt number, skin friction, and total entropy generation. Excellent agreement between present study and previous literature is observed. It is found that, an augmentation in magnetic field will result in higher values of both local and average Nusselt number accompanying with bigger values of skin friction and entropy generation. Computations illustrate that, increasing the solid volume fraction of the Al₂O₃ nanoparticles will raise the Nusselt number and total entropy generation rate but its effect on the skin friction is negligible. Also, numerical results imply that increasing amplitude sine waves of the geometry has incremental effect on the Nusselt number and skin friction but its effect on the total entropy generation rate is not so clear. Moreover, by adding number of the used blocks in the presence of magnetic field, the local Nusselt number experiences more jumps but it does not increase the average Nusselt number, necessarily. In addition, using more blocks increases skin friction but it has a reverse effect on the total entropy generation rate.     

Asymmetric Forced Convection of Nanofluids in a Channel with Symmetrically Mounted Rib Heaters on Opposite Walls

Laminar forced convection of nanofluids in a vertical channel with symmetrically mounted rib heaters on surfaces of opposite walls is numerically studied. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are examined for various Reynolds numbers and nanoparticles volume fractions of water-Al₂O₃ nanofluid. The flow exhibits various structures with varying Reynolds number. Even though the geometry and heating is symmetric with respect to a channel vertical mid-plane, asymmetric flow and heat transfer are found for Reynolds number greater than a critical value. Introduction of nanofluids in the base fluid delays the flow solution bifurcation point, and the critical Reynolds number increases with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction. A skin friction coefficient along the solid-fluid interfaces increases and decreases sharply along the bottom and top faces of the heaters, respectively, due to sudden acceleration and deceleration of the fluid at the respective faces. The skin friction coefficient, as well as Nusselt numbers in the channel, increase with increasing volume fraction of nanoparticles.     

Forced convection in a wavy-wall channel

The rates of heat transfer for flow through a sinusoidally curved converging-diverging channel has been analyzed using a simple coordinate transformation method and the spline alternating-direction implicit method. The effects of the wavy geometry, Reynolds number and Prandtl number on the skin-friction and Nusselt number have been studied. Results show that the amplitudes of the Nusselt number and the skin-friction coefficient increase with an increase in the Reynolds number and the amplitude-wavelength ratio. The heat transfer enhancement is not significant at smaller amplitude wavelength ratio, however, at a sufficiently larger value of amplitude wavelength ratio the corrugated channel will be seen to be an effective heat transfer device, especially at higher Reynolds numbers.     

Convective Heat Transfer and Resistance Characteristics of Nanofluids with Cylindrical Particles

Numerical research on convective heat transfer and resistance characteristics of TiO₂/water nanofluids with cylindrical particles in laminar channel flow are performed by solving the governing equations of fluid flow with the additional term of cylindrical nanoparticles, the equation of probability density functions for cylindrical nanoparticle orientation, and general dynamics equation for nanoparticle volume concentration. The nonuniformity of nanoparticle distribution is considered and the effects of both particle volume concentration and Reynolds number on friction factor and local Nusselt number are mainly analyzed. The results show that the friction factor of nanofluid flow increases with an increase in particle volume concentration. And the friction factor decreases with increasing Reynolds number and is not dependent on the volume concentration at high Reynolds numbers. The Nusselt number declines when the Reynolds number decreases, and finally approaches an asymptotic value after the Reynolds number falls to a certain value. The Nusselt number is higher in the entrance region than at the downstream locations, and will become steady at somewhere downstream when the flow is thermally and hydraulically developed.     

Forced Convection in Micropolar Fluid Flow through a Wavy-Wall Channel

ABSTRACT

Forced convection of micropolar fluids through a periodic array of wavy-wall channels has been analyzed by using a simple coordinate transformation method and the spline alternating- direction implicit method. The effects of the wavy amplitude, the micropolar parameter, and the Reynolds number on skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number have been examined in detail. Results show that the flow through a sinusoidally curved converging-diverging channel forms a strong forward flow and a reticular vortex within each wave for larger Reynolds number and larger wavy amplitudes. For the micropolar fluids, increasing the vortex viscosity causes an increase in the total viscosity of the fluid, thus the skin friction coefficient increases while the Nusselt number decreases. Also, the influence of vortex viscosity on the minimum cross section of the wavy-wall channel and on a tiny change of the maximum cross section is manifest. Moreover, both Reynolds number and wavy amplitude tend to enhance the total heat transfer rate, regardless of whether the fluids are Newtonian or micropolar fluids.     

Heat transfer enhancement with laminar pulsating nanofluid flow in a wavy channel

In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of Al₂O₃–water based nanofluids in a wavy mini-channel under pulsating inlet flow conditions are investigated numerically. The simulations are performed for nanofluid volume fractions, pulsating frequency and amplitude while the other parameters are kept constant by using control volume based cfd solver. The flow is both thermally and hydrodynamically developing while the channel walls are kept at a constant temperature. Results indicate that there is a good potential in promoting the thermal performance enhancement by using the nanoparticles under pulsating flow. Pulsation in nanofluids is a new idea for enhancement of heat transfer. Furthermore, the pulsating flow has an advantage to prevent sedimentation of nanoparticles in the base fluid. Results show that the heat transfer performance increases significantly with increase in nanoparticle volume fraction and with the amplitude of pulsation while the pulsation frequencies have a slight effect. In the pulsating flow conditions the combined effect of pulsation and nanoparticles is favorable for the increasing Nusselt number when compared to the steady flow case. The obtained results are given as dimensionless parameters.     

Numerical study of hydrodynamic and heat transfer of nanofluid flow in microchannels containing micromixer

In this study heat transfer and fluid flow of Al₂O₃/water nanofluid in two dimensional parallel plate microchannel without and with micromixers have been investigated for nanoparticle volume fractions of ϕ = 0, ϕ = 4%  and base fluid Reynolds numbers of Re_f = 5, 20, 50. One baffle on the bottom wall and another on the top wall work as a micromixer and heat transfer enhancement device. A single-phase finite difference FORTRAN code using Projection method has been written to solve governing equations with constant wall temperature boundary condition. The effect of various parameters such as nanoparticle volume fraction, base fluid Reynolds number, baffle distance, height and order of arrangement have been studied. Results showed that the presence of baffles and also increasing the Re number and nanoparticle volume fraction increase the local and averaged heat transfer and friction coefficients. Also, the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on heat transfer coefficient is more than the friction coefficient in most of the cases. It was found that the main mechanism of enhancing heat transfer or mixing is the recirculation zones that are created behind the baffles. The size of these zones increases with Reynolds number and baffle height. The fluid pushing toward the wall by the opposed wall baffle and reattaching of separated flow are the locations of local maximum heat transfer and friction coefficients.     

Numerical study of local heat transfer coefficient and fin efficiency of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers

Three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed for laminar flow of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers by using body-fitted coordinates (BFC) method with fin efficiency effect accounted. The prediction results of average Nusselt number, friction factor and fin efficiency were compared with the related experimental correlations [R.C. Xin, H.Z. Li, H.J. Kang, W. Li, W.Q. Tao, An experimental investigation on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of triangular wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger surfaces, J. Xi'an Jiaotong Univ. 28 (2) (1994) 77–83] and Schmidt approximation [T.E. Schmidt, Heat transfer calculations for extended surfaces, Refrigerating Engineering (April 1949) 351–357]. For Reynolds numbers based on the tube outside diameter ranging from 500 to 4000, the mean deviation is 3.3% for Nusselt number, 1.9% for friction factor and 3.6% for fin efficiency. The distributions of local Nusselt number and fin efficiency on fin surface were studied at wavy angle equal to 0° (plain plate fin), 10° and 20° respectively. The local Nusselt number decreases along the air flow direction, but fin efficiency increases in general. The wavy angle can greatly affect the distributions of local Nusselt number and fin efficiency, and make the distributions present fluctuation along the flow direction. The result also shows that the fin efficiency at the inlet region of wavy fin is larger than that of plain plate fin at the same region. With the increase of Reynolds number, the effects of wavy angle on the distributions of local Nusselt number and fin efficiency are more and more significant.     

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.     

Thermal Enhancement of Triangular Ducts Using Compound of Vortex Generators and Nanofluids

Laminar flow and heat transfer of three different types of nanofluids; Al₂O₃, CuO, and SiO₂ suspended in ethylene glycol, in a triangular duct using delta-winglet pair of vortex generator are numerically simulated in three dimensions. The governing equations of mass, momentum and energy are solved using the finite volume method. The effects of types, concentrations, and diameter of solid nanoparticles and Reynolds number on thermal and hydraulic performance of triangular duct are examined. The range of Reynolds number, volume fraction and nanoparticles diameters is 100–1200, 1–4%, and 25–85 nm, respectively. The results indicate that the average Nusselt number increases with the particles volume fraction and Reynolds number associated with an increase in the pressure drop. The heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop penalty reduce with increasing the particles diameters. However, a reduction in the pumping power required is observed to force the nanofluids when the volume fraction increases, assuming the heat transfer coefficient remains constant.     

Forced convective heat transfer of nanofluids in microchannels

Convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor of nanofluids in rectangular microchannels were measured. An integrated microsystem consisting of a single microchannel on one side, and two localized heaters and five polysilicon temperature sensors along the channel on the other side were fabricated. Aluminum dioxide (Al₂O₃) with diameter of 170 nm nanofluids with various particle volume fractions were used in experiments to investigate the effect of the volume fraction of the nanoparticles to the convective heat transfer and fluid flow in microchannels. The convective heat transfer coefficient of the Al₂O₃ nanofluid in laminar flow regime was measured to be increased up to 32% compared to the distilled water at a volume fraction of 1.8 volume percent without major friction loss. The Nusselt number measured increases with increasing the Reynolds number in laminar flow regime. The measured Nusselt number which turned out to be less than 0.5 was successfully correlated with Reynolds number and Prandtl number based on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids.     

Numerical investigations of flow and heat transfer enhancement in a corrugated channel using nanofluid

In this paper, heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of copper–water nanofluid flow through isothermally heated corrugated channel are numerically studied. A numerical simulation is carried out by solving the governing continuity, momentum and energy equations for laminar flow in curvilinear coordinates using the Finite Difference (FD) approach. The investigation covers Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume fraction in the ranges of 100–1000 and 0–0.05 respectively. The effects of using the nanofluid on the heat transfer and pressure drop inside the channel are investigated. It is found that the heat transfer enhancement increases with increase in the volume fraction of the nanoparticle and Reynolds number, while there is slight increase in pressure drop. Comparisons of the present results with those available in literature are presented and discussed.     

多孔泡沫内纳米流体非平衡传热及体积分数分布

研究了纳米流体在金属泡沫内的对流换热,建立了局部非热平衡数学模型,得到了金属泡沫内纳米流体速度、温度和纳米颗粒体积分数分布,分析了纳米流体和金属泡沫的强化换热效果。当使用纳米流体或在通道内填充金属泡沫时,截面速度和温度变得更均匀。随着纳米颗粒体积分数的增大,努塞尔数先增大然后又逐渐减小,即存在一个合适的体积分数能使换热效果达到最好;当金属泡沫孔隙率增加时努塞尔数也会减小,有利于换热的进行。纳米流体和金属泡沫对换热具有明显强化作用,但压降随纳米颗粒体积分数增大而急剧增大。此外,还考虑了布朗扩散和热泳扩散等因素的影响。     

Convective Heat Transfer and Fluid Dynamic Characteristics of SiO2 Ethylene Glycol/Water Nanofluid

Nanofluids comprised of silicon dioxide (SiO₂) nanoparticles suspended in a 60:40 (% by weight) ethylene glycol and water (EG/water) mixture were investigated for their heat transfer and fluid dynamic performance. First, the rheological properties of different volume percents of SiO₂ nanofluids were investigated at varying temperatures. The effect of particle diameter (20 nm, 50 nm, 100 nm) on the viscosity of the fluid was investigated. Subsequent experiments were performed to investigate the convective heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids in the turbulent regime by using the viscosity values measured. The experimental system was first tested with EG/water mixture to establish agreement with the Dittus-Boelter equation for Nusselt number and with Blasius equation for friction factor. The increase in heat transfer coefficient due to nanofluids for various volume concentrations has been presented. Pressure loss was observed to increase with nanoparticle volume concentration. It was observed that an increase in particle diameter increased the heat transfer coefficient. Typical percentage increases of heat transfer coefficient and pressure loss at fixed Reynolds number are presented.     

Experimental and numerical study of nanofluid flow and heat transfer over microscale forward-facing step

Experimental and numerical investigations are presented to illustrate the nanofluid flow and heat transfer characteristics over microscale forward-facing step (MFFS). The duct inlet and the step height were 400 μm and 600 μm respectively. All the walls are considered adiabatic except the downstream wall was exposed to a uniform heat flux boundary condition. The distilled water was utilized as a base fluid with two types of nanoparticles Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ suspended in the base fluid. The nanoparticle volume fraction range was from 0 to 0.01 with an average nanoparticle diameter of 30 nm. The experiments were conducted at a Reynolds number range from 280 to 480. The experimental and numerical results revealed that the water–SiO₂ nanofluid has the highest Nusselt number, and the Nusselt number increases with the increase of volume fraction. The average friction factor of water–Al₂O₃ was less than of water–SiO₂ mixture and pure water. The experimental results showed 30.6% enhancement in the average Nusselt number using water–SiO₂ nanofluid at 1% volume fraction. The numerical results were in a good agreement with the experimental results.     

除湿条件下波纹通道内对流传热传质的数值研究

通过数值计算对紧凑换热器一种波纹翅片通道内除湿条件下周期性充分发展的对流传热传质情况进行数值研究。计算采用曲线坐标系下压力与速度耦合的SIMPLER算法,湿空气流动Re数的范围为100～1100,Pr数为0.71,Sc数为0.61。讨论了不同波纹高度、波纹间距对阻力与换热的影响,给出了不同Re数下的浓度场,并对动量、传热及传质进行了定量比较分析。计算结果表明,整体Nu数及fRe数随着波纹高度的增加或波纹间距的减小而增加;浓度随着Re数的增加沿着流动方向迅速降低;计算能较好的满足Chilton-Colburn相似,表明传热特性均可类推到传质特性中去。     

带有横向微沟槽的矩形紧凑式通道换热器内超临界液化天然气工质换热强化特性模拟研究

提出了一种用于超临界液化天然气换热的微小通道换热器整体性能提高的被动式强化技术并进行了数值模拟验证和设计优化。在普通的矩形微小通道内利用3D激光打印技术在壁面加工横向圆弧形微沟槽以强化换热能力。首先对圆弧形微沟槽的槽深、槽宽和相邻两槽道中心距等几何尺寸进行了优化计算,然后讨论了在使用强化技术后工质温度在跨越临界温度的120K-250K范围内的换热强化和流动特性,进一步考察了工质温度、质量流量（雷诺数）和进口压力对换热系数（努塞尔数）、摩擦因子和综合效益系数的影响。此外,通过微沟槽附近的局部流动特性分析强化换热机理,数值模拟结果表明带有横向微沟槽的紧凑式换热器的综合换热效益得到30%左右增加,显示了优异的换热强化综合效果     

Experimental and numerical study on the heat transfer enhancement over scalene and curved-side triangular ribs

The present study examines the turbulent flow of mixed convection heat transfer enhancement within a rectangular channel considering three different novel shapes of ribs (smooth, scalene, and curved-side triangular). The investigations were conducted experimentally by developing a new test facility, while the numerical computations were carried out using the finite volume method. The experimental work involves constructing of the channel, ribs, and all equipment and measurement instruments. The numerical work is based on ANSYS FLUENT considering the k–ε turbulent model. The results are presented and compared in terms of Nusselt number, friction factor, and performance factors for Reynolds numbers ranging between 3000 and 12,000. By comparing the average values of the numerically obtained Nusselt number with experimental measurements, the data showed a close agreement with a maximum difference of 5%. It also found that scalene triangular ribs (STRs) provide better performance in terms of heat transfer, although introducing a slight increase in friction losses. STRs showed (20%) increase in Nusselt number compared with smooth channel, and 3%–6% increase in Nusselt number compared with curved-side triangular ribs (CTRs). In contrast, CTRs have a lower friction factor value of 5% compared with STRs at a low value of a Reynolds number of 3000. Furthermore, the Nusselt number changes significantly (250% increase) by increasing the value of the Reynolds number from 3000 to 12,000. A thermal performance factor of up to 1.28 was achieved for the STRs at the lowest range of Reynolds' number of 3000. The findings from the present study are of practical importance for industries requiring heat transfer enhancement techniques to improve heat transfer equipment performance.