Numerical simulation of natural convection in a square enclosure filled with nanofluid using the two-phase Lattice Boltzmann method

Considering interaction forces (gravity and buoyancy force, drag force, interaction potential force, and Brownian force) between nanoparticles and a base fluid, a two-phase Lattice Boltzmann model for natural convection of nanofluid is developed in this work. It is applied to investigate the natural convection in a square enclosure (the left wall is kept at a high constant temperature (T_H), and the top wall is kept at a low constant temperature (T_C)) filled with Al₂O₃/H₂O nanofluid. This model is validated by comparing numerical results with published results, and a satisfactory agreement is shown between them. The effects of different nanoparticle fractions and Rayleigh numbers on natural convection heat transfer of nanofluid are investigated. It is found that the average Nusselt number of the enclosure increases with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction and increases more rapidly at a high Rayleigh number. Also, the effects of forces on nanoparticle volume fraction distribution in the square enclosure are studied in this paper. It is found that the driving force of the temperature difference has the biggest effect on nanoparticle volume fraction distribution. In addition, the effects of interaction forces on flow and heat transfer are investigated. It is found that Brownian force, interaction potential force, and gravity-buoyancy force have positive effects on the enhancement of natural convective heat transfer, while drag force has a negative effect.     

Simulation of forced convection in a channel with nanofluid by the lattice Boltzmann method

This paper presents a numerical study of the thermal performance of fins mounted on the bottom wall of a horizontal channel and cooled with either pure water or an Al₂O₃-water nanofluid. The bottom wall of the channel is heated at a constant temperature and cooled by mixed convection of laminar flow at a relatively low temperature. The results of the numerical simulation indicate that the heat transfer rate of fins is significantly affected by the Reynolds number (Re) and the thermal conductivity of the fins. The influence of the solid volume fraction on the increase of heat transfer is more noticeable at higher values of the Re.     

Particle Shape and Aspect Ratio Effect of Al2O3–Water Nanofluid on Natural Convective Heat Transfer Enhancement in Differentially Heated Square Enclosures

The present numerical investigation, based on the finite volume method, deals with the characterization of flow and thermal fields inside differentially heated square enclosures filled with Al₂O₃–water nanofluid. The study focuses on the effect of shapes and aspect ratios of nanoparticles (NPs), depicted by Rayleigh number (Ra), solid volume fraction (?), and enclosure on both flow and heat transfer enhancement. Streamlines, isotherms contours, and velocity profiles as well as the average Nusselt number are considered. Results found show that the heat transfer rate increases with Rayleigh number as well as with nanofluid volume fraction. For the six different examined cases of NPs’ aspect ratios, nanofluid with oblate spheroids NPs (d_p = 0.13) was found to engender a significant enhancement in the overall heat transfer. In addition, heat transfer rate was more pronounced at great values of aspect ratios of NPs for prolate spheroids. Results also showed that heat transfer enhancement decreases as the Rayleigh number increases independently of the considered enclosure, shapes, and aspect ratios of NPs.     

Turbulent convective heat transfer of nanofluids through a square channel

This paper reports the results of experimental investigation on the heat transfer performance of Al₂O₃/H₂O and TiO₂/H₂O nanofluids through square channel with constant wall temperature boundary condition. The flow regime through channel is turbulent. The nanofluids used in this research are Al₂O₃/H₂O and TiO₂/H₂O with different nanoparticle concentrations. Based on the results of the present investigation, for specific Peclet number, convective heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number of nanofluids are higher than those of distilled water. The enhancement increases with increasing nanoparticle concentration. The results also reveal that the convective heat transfer coefficient for Al₂O₃/H₂O nanofluid is relatively the same as that of TiO₂/H₂O nanofluid.     

Effects of discrete source-sink arrangements on mixed convection in a square cavity filled by nanofluid

Laminar mixed convection of Al₂O₃/water nanofluid flow in a cavity in which the upper wall is moving from right to left has been studied numerically. Fifteen different arrangements of two discrete sources and four discrete sinks have been considered. This work shows when one source is located at the right side of the bottom wall and other one at the down half of the left wall, total heat transfer achieves its maximum value. The lowest heat transfer rate is achieved when more than two vortexes are created in the cavity (case 13 for Ri=1 and case 5 for Ri=100). In general, for cases with one overall vortex, the cavities which have separate sources induce better cooling and have higher Nu number.     

Numerical investigation of Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>/water nanofluid laminar convective heat transfer through triangular ducts

In this article, laminar flow-forced convective heat transfer of Al₂O₃/water nanofluid in a triangular duct under constant wall temperature condition is investigated numerically. In this investigation, the effects of parameters, such as nanoparticles diameter, concentration, and Reynolds number on the enhancement of nanofluids heat transfer is studied. Besides, the comparison between nanofluid and pure fluid heat transfer is achieved in this article. Sometimes, because of pressure drop limitations, the need for non-circular ducts arises in many heat transfer applications. The low heat transfer rate of non-circular ducts is one the limitations of these systems, and utilization of nanofluid instead of pure fluid because of its potential to increase heat transfer of system can compensate this problem. In this article, for considering the presence of nanoparticl: es, the dispersion model is used. Numerical results represent an enhancement of heat transfer of fluid associated with changing to the suspension of nanometer-sized particles in the triangular duct. The results of the present model indicate that the nanofluid Nusselt number increases with increasing concentration of nanoparticles and decreasing diameter. Also, the enhancement of the fluid heat transfer becomes better at high Re in laminar flow with the addition of nanoparticles.     

Enhancement of heat transfer and entropy generation analysis of nanofluids turbulent convection flow in square section tubes

In this article, developing turbulent forced convection flow of a water-Al₂O₃ nanofluid in a square tube, subjected to constant and uniform wall heat flux, is numerically investigated. The mixture model is employed to simulate the nanofluid flow and the investigation is accomplished for particles size equal to 38 nm.     

Investigations of effect of radial flow impeller type swirl generator fitted in an electronic heat sink and Al2O3/water nanofluid on heat transfer enhancement

In this paper experimental investigations on convective heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in a novel electronic heat sink fitted with dynamic mixers using water and Al₂O₃/water nanofluid are presented. For this, Al₂O₃ nanoparticles of average size 47 nm are synthesized using microwave assisted chemical precipitation method and characterized using XRD and SEM. Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of water and nanofluid are studied in the electronic heat sink of base size 60 mm × 60 mm made of copper with and without the dynamic mixer. The enhancements in the heat transfer and pressure drop results are compared with water and the heat sink without any mixer. The results reveal that there is significant increase in the convective heat transfer when the dynamic mixer is used for enhancing the heat transfer and further increase in heat transfer is found for the nanofluid. The rise in pressure drop compared with the increase of heat transfer is less.     

Conjugate heat transfer of laminar mixed convection of a nanofluid through an inclined tube with circumferentially non-uniform heating

Laminar mixed convection of a nanofluid consisting of water and Al₂O₃ in an inclined tube with heating at the top half surface of a copper tube has been studied numerically. The bottom half of the tube wall is assumed to be adiabatic (presenting a tube of a solar collector). Heat conduction mechanism through the tube wall is considered. Three-dimensional governing equations with using two-phase mixture model have been solved to investigate hydrodynamic and thermal behaviours of the nanofluid over wide range of nanoparticle volume fractions. For a given nanoparticle mean diameter the effects of nanoparticle volume fractions on the hydrodynamics and thermal parameters are presented and discussed at different Richardson numbers and different tube inclinations. Significant augmentation on the heat transfer coefficient as well as on the wall shear stress is seen.     

Effects of Inclination Angle on Laminar Mixed Convection of a Nanofluid Flowing through an Annulus

Numerical study was done to investigate the effect of inclination angle on the hydrodynamics and thermal parameters of a nanofluid laminar flow throughout an annulus. For Al₂O₃/water nanofluid, profiles of axial velocity, contours of temperature, and secondary flows at the annulus cross sections are presented and discussed at different inclination angles. The results confirm that the axial component of buoyancy forces and secondary flows influences the flow regime. While the axial variation of friction coefficient was affected by the secondary flows for Ri = 0.1, it continuously changes with axial component of buoyancy forces as a function of inclination angle for Ri = 3. The results indicate that the maximum value of heat transfer coefficient obtained at the horizontal condition where the buoyancy forces result the strongest secondary flow.     

NUMERICAL STUDY OF DEVELOPED LAMINAR MIXED CONVECTION OF Al2O3/WATER NANOFLUID IN AN ANNULUS

This work aims to study the combined free and forced convection of an Al₂O₃/water nanofluid flowing throughout an annulus. A set of three-dimensional elliptic governing equations were solved numerically using the finite volume technique. The effect of the volume fraction of the nanoparticles and the Richardson number on the thermal and hydrodynamic parameters was extensively investigated. The distribution of the axial velocity and temperature at different cross sections is shown. The axial variation of the frictional and heat transfer coefficients is presented. Results indicate that the Richardson number does not influence the frictional coefficient, while the heat transfer coefficient directly depends on the Ri number. The dimensional axial velocity continually increases with greater volume fraction of nanoparticles at the upper and lower sides of the annulus, while this behavior for dimensionless axial velocity is not continuous. The results indicate that any increase in the volume fraction results in secondary flow enhancement and, therefore, a delay in the occurrence of the maximum heat transfer coefficient.     

Rayleigh–Benard Convection in a Chemically Equilibrium Gas Containing Chemically Inert Microparticles

A physicomathematical model of the Rayleigh–Benard convection in a chemically equilibrium gas containing chemically inert microparticles (Al₂O₃) is proposed. A linear analysis of convection in the Boussinesq approximation is performed. It is shown that addition of chemically inert microparticles increases the critical value of the Rayleigh number and stability of the convective process. The possibility of using chemically inert microparticles for controlling convection in a chemically reacting gas is demonstrated by an example of a chemically equilibrium gas.     

Performance evaluation on an air-cooled heat exchanger for alumina nanofluid under laminar flow

This study analyzes the characteristics of alumina (Al₂O₃)/water nanofluid to determine the feasibility of its application in an air-cooled heat exchanger for heat dissipation for PEMFC or electronic chip cooling. The experimental sample was Al₂O₃/water nanofluid produced by the direct synthesis method at three different concentrations (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 wt.%). The experiments in this study measured the thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluid with weight fractions and sample temperatures (20-60°C), and then used the nanofluid in an actual air-cooled heat exchanger to assess its heat exchange capacity and pressure drop under laminar flow. Experimental results show that the nanofluid has a higher heat exchange capacity than water, and a higher concentration of nanoparticles provides an even better ratio of the heat exchange. The maximum enhanced ratio of heat exchange and pressure drop for all the experimental parameters in this study was about 39% and 5.6%, respectively. In addition to nanoparticle concentration, the temperature and mass flow rates of the working fluid can affect the enhanced ratio of heat exchange and pressure drop of nanofluid. The cross-section aspect ratio of tube in the heat exchanger is another important factor to be taken into consideration.     

Application of different CFD multiphase models to investigate effects of baffles and nanoparticles on heat transfer enhancement

In this work, the effect of baffles in a pipe on heat transfer enhancement was studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the presence of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles which are dispersed into water. Fluid flow through the horizontal tube with uniform heat flux was simulated numerically and three dimensional governing partial differential equations were solved. To find an accurate model for CFD simulations, the results obtained by the single phase were compared with those obtained by three different multiphase models including Eulerian, mixture and volume of fluid (VOF) at Reynolds numbers in range of 600 to 3000, and two different nanoparticle concentrations (1% and 1.6%). It was found that multiphase models could better predict the heat transfer in nanofluids. The effect of baffles on heat transfer of nanofluid flow was also investigated through a baffled geometry. The numerical results show that at Reynolds numbers in the range of 600 to 2100, the heat transfer of nanofluid flowing in the geometry without baffle is greater than that of water flowing through a tube with baffle, whereas the difference between these effects (nanofluid and baffle) decreases with increasing the Reynolds number. At higher Reynolds numbers (2100–3000) the baffle has a greater effect on heat transfer enhancement than the nanofluid.     

Pool boiling of water-Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> and water-Cu nanofluids on horizontal smooth tubes

Experimental investigation of heat transfer during pool boiling of two nanofluids, i.e., water-Al₂O₃ and water-Cu has been carried out. Nanoparticles were tested at the concentration of 0.01%, 0.1%, and 1% by weight. The horizontal smooth copper and stainless steel tubes having 10 mm OD and 0.6 mm wall thickness formed test heater. The experiments have been performed to establish the influence of nanofluids concentration as well as tube surface material on heat transfer characteristics at atmospheric pressure. The results indicate that independent of concentration nanoparticle material (Al₂O₃ and Cu) has almost no influence on heat transfer coefficient while boiling of water-Al₂O₃ or water-Cu nanofluids on smooth copper tube. It seems that heater material did not affect the boiling heat transfer in 0.1 wt.% water-Cu nanofluid, nevertheless independent of concentration, distinctly higher heat transfer coefficient was recorded for stainless steel tube than for copper tube for the same heat flux density.     

Natural convection in shear‐thinning yield stress fluids in a square enclosure

The influence of viscoplastic rheological features on the Rayleigh‐Bénard convection is investigated by numerical means in order to compare with first experimental results given by Darbouli et al. The fluid is modeled by a regularized Herschel‐Bulkley law which is often used to fit numerous pasty fluids. Natural convection in a two‐dimensional square cavity heated from below is considered. Critical values of Oldroyd number Od and yield number Y are provided. Numerical results highlight a stabilizing effect of the yield stress as well as a destabilizing effect of increasing shear‐thinning coefficient n as the increase in n enhances the heat transfer in the range of our calculations. Unyielded regions are located in the square corners of the cavity and in the cavity where convection occurs. The unyielded zones size increases with the increase in Od and can invade all the cavity for sufficiently large values of Od. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 1347–1355, 2016     

CO2 Absorption Using Nanofluids in a Wetted‐Wall Column with External Magnetic Field

A new method for enhancing the mass transfer coefficient in the gas absorption process is reported. CO₂ absorption experiments were carried out in a wetted‐wall column using different aqueous nanofluids as the solvent. The mass transfer characteristics were found to increase by applying Al₂O₃/water nanofluid. The mass transfer coefficient decreased with TiO₂/water nanofluid. In the case of Fe₃O₄/water nanofluid, the mass transfer rate was enhanced by increasing the nanoparticle volume fraction, but the mass transfer coefficient was lower than that obtained with water for all experimental conditions studied. Finally, applying a downward magnetic field resulted in higher mass flux and mass transfer coefficient in comparison with experiments without a magnetic field.     

Al2O3纳米颗粒对氨水鼓泡吸收过程的强化影响

在试制出了性能稳定的Al₂O₃纳米流体的基础上,通过定氨气流量和定入口压力两种实验方案,验证了Al₂O₃纳米颗粒对氨水吸收过程的强化影响,同时找出了引起强化吸收的两个主要影响因素：纳米流体性能的稳定性和吸收器入口与吸收器内气相界面的压力差。在添加十二烷基苯磺酸钠（SDBS）的情况下,可以获得性能稳定而具有强化吸收效果的Al₂O₃纳米流体,尽管SDBS本身对Al₂O₃纳米流体强化吸收具有抑制作用。较大的压力差下Al₂O₃纳米流体在吸收开始阶段就表现出强化吸收效果。随着氨水浓度的增加,氨水对氨气的吸收潜力减小,而Al₂O₃纳米流体对氨水溶液强化吸收的效果更加明显。对强化现象的可能机理给出了合理解释,为纳米流体对传热传质强化研究提供参考。     

ZrO_2-水纳米流体管内层流的传热特性

制备了粒径为50 nm的ZrO2-水纳米流体,并通过添加分散剂NH4PAA改善纳米流体的稳定性。测量了4种不同质量分数(0.2%,0.4%,0.8%,1.2%)的ZrO2-水纳米流体在层流状态下的对流换热系数。实验结果表明:在相同雷诺数下,纳米流体的换热系数要比纯水的有所提高,并随着ZrO2纳米颗粒质量分数的增加而增大。当纳米流体的质量分数为0.2%,0.4%,0.8%,1.2%时,其平均换热系数比纯水分别提高了1.9%,2.4%,5.2%和8.8%。实验管道内的不同位置也影响纳米流体换热系数的提高,入口段的换热系数要比充分发展段提高得更明显,其主要原因是纳米颗粒对流体边界层的干扰。     

脉冲加热下微加热器在Al2O3纳米流体中的沸腾换热

以Al₂O₃-H₂O纳米流体中的微加热器为研究对象,通过实验方法对脉冲加热条件下微加热器的温度响应曲线和气泡动力学行为进行了详细的研究。比较了在纯水及浓度为0.1%和0.2%的Al₂O₃-H₂O纳米流体中微加热器的温度变化和气泡动力学行为。发现在脉冲加热条件下,微加热器在不同浓度的纳米流体中将出现不同的温度响应曲线,加热膜表面的气泡动力学行为也不相同。实验表明,在脉冲加热条件下,微加热器在Al₂O₃-H₂O纳米流体中的换热效果要明显高于纯水,纳米粒子的浓度对于加热膜表面的气泡动力学行为有明显影响,对微加热器换热的影响也很大。最后根据实验结果以及纳米粒子对气液固三相线的影响,对实验中Al₂O₃纳米流体的换热情况进行了合理的解释。