Study of multilayer flow of two immiscible nanofluids in a duct with viscous dissipation

Abstract

Numerical simulations for the mixed convective multilayer flow of two different immiscible nanofluids in a duct with viscous heating effects were performed in this study. The left and right faces of the duct are maintained to be isothermal, while other side faces are insulated. The mathematical governing system for each layer consists of an incompressibility condition equation, the Navier–Stokes momentum equation, and the conservation of energy equation. At the interface of the immiscible layer, the continuity of velocity, shear stress, temperature, and heat flux are considered. The dimensionless equations governing each layer were numerically integrated using the finite difference method and the Southwell-over-relaxation method. A mesh independence test is conducted. Furthermore, a parametric study is performed to analyze how the different nanoparticle volume fractions and viscous heating affect the transport characteristics of engine oil–copper and mineral oil–silver nanofluids. The study also examined the effects of various types of nanoparticles and base fluids. The results demonstrated that heat transport could be efficiently controlled by considering the viscous heating aspect. Moreover, the effects of different nanoparticles on heat transport were found to be more significant than those of base fluids. Finally, a point-wise comparison of our numerical results demonstrates a good agreement with existing studies in the literature.