Contribution to the Thermal and Hydraulic Study of Forced Convection in Corrugated Configuration Using Nanofluids

Abstract

In this article, a research on characteristics of the flow and heat transfer of SiO2, Al2O3 and CuO nanoparticles with 5% of volume fraction, in a right and wavy channel with different shapes (trapezoidal, triangular, square) was conducted. Water, glycerin, and ethylene glycol are among the base fluids investigated. Constant temperature was imposed on the top and bottom of the ducts. The investigation covers Reynolds numbers between 100 and 5000 and the particle diameter is 30 nm. The governing equations are resolved using the SIMPLE algorithm, which is based on the finite volume method. The effects of channel shape, base fluids and shape of nanoparticles on the fluid flow and heat transfer are investigated. The findings say that as the Reynolds number increases, the friction factor reduces and the average Nusselt number rises. Also, in comparison to the triangular, straight and square channel, the trapezoidal-corrugated channel provides greater convective heat transfer. Moreover, the total entropy generation and the entropy due to heat transfer decreases with a rise in the Reynolds number unlike that the generation of entropy due to friction increases with the rise in the Reynolds number. When Reynolds’ number rises, the number of Bejan falls. Furthermore, against other base fluids, the nanofluid SiO2-glycerin improves the most heat transferring. The spherical shape gives the highest convective heat transfer performance as opposed to the cylindrical shape. The numerical results from this investigation were used to create two correlations. The current findings are compared to those found in the literature, and there is a strong agreement.