Topological Characteristics of Obstacles and Nonlinear Rheological Fluid Flow in Presence of Insulated Fins: A Fluid Force Reduction Study

Abstract

In this work, a comprehensive study of fluid forces and thermal analysis of two-dimensional, laminar, and incompressible complex (power law, Bingham, and Herschel–Bulkley) fluid flow over a topological cross-sectional cylinder (square, hexagon, and circle) in channel have been computationally done by using finite element technique. The characteristics of nonlinear flow for varying ranges of power law index $\left(0.4\le n\le 1.6\right),$ Bingham number $\left(0\le \text{Bn}\le 50\right)$ , Prandtl number $\left(0.7\le \text{Pr}\le 10\right)$ , Reynolds number $\left(10\le \text{Re}\le 50\right)$ , and Grashof number $\left(1\le \text{Gr}\le 10\right)\hspace{0.17em}$ have been examined. Considerable evaluation for thermal flow field in the form of dimensionless velocity profile, isotherms, drag and lift coefficients, and average Nusselt number $\left({\text{Nu}}_{\text{avg}}\right)$ is done. Also, for a range of $\text{Bn}$ , the drag forces reduction is observed for circular and hexagonal obstacles in comparison with the square cylinder. At $\text{Bn}=0\hspace{0.17em}$ corresponding to Newtonian fluid, maximum reduction in drag force is reported.