HEAT TRANSFER EXAMINATION OF OSCILLATING NANOFLUID FLOW IN A RECTANGULAR CORRUGATED CHANNEL WITH VERTICAL PLATES: A NUMERICAL STUDY

Abstract

This study numerically focused investigating the thermal performance of flow oscillations in a rectangular corrugated channel with vertical plates on top wall. The numerical study was performed with the ANSYS Fluent software, and the SIMPLE algorithm was utilized to solve the pressure-velocity coupling. The top wall of the channel was adiabatic and included vertical plates. The bottom wall of the channel was rectangular grooved and kept at Tw=360 K. Suspension of Al2O3 nanoparticles into water was used as the fluid. The particle volume fraction in the suspension was kept constant at φ = 5%. Oscillating amplitude (A) and Strouhal number (St) were maintained constant at A = 1 and St = 2, respectively. In the presented study, the effects of vertical plates, Al2O3-water nanofluid and pulsating flow on flow and heat transfer were analyzed separately at different Reynolds numbers (200 ≤ Re ≤ 800). The Nusselt number (Nu), relative friction factor (frel) and performance evaluation criteria (PEC) were obtained for different Reynolds numbers. The temperature and velocity fields were acquired for varying parameters. The results demonstrated that the flow and temperature structures were significantly influenced by the channel geometry and oscillating flow. Heat transfer considerably enhanced with the oscillating flow at the high Re. At Re = 800, thermal improvement for oscillating flow of the nanofluid in the channel with plates increased by nearly 1.57 times relative to the steady case of the basic fluid in the channel without plates.