Influence of Nanoparticles and Magnetic Field on the Laminar Forced Convection in a Duct Containing an Elastic Fin

Abstract

In the present paper, an investigation of the effect of a magnetic field and nanoparticles suspended in pure water on the forced flow in a duct containing an elastic rectangular fin is performed. The nanofluid, i.e., CuO nanoparticles suspended in water, flow in the duct with an inlet fully developed velocity profile and a cold temperature. The lower boundary of the duct is kept at a hot temperature, while the upper boundary is adiabatic. According to the ALE formulation, numerical simulations of the laminar flow are carried out, by employing the software package Comsol Multiphysics, to solve the governing equation system: mass, momentum, energy, and deformation. The behavior of the Nusselt number, of the temperature and velocity fields as well as of the stress profiles are presented and interpreted. As a result, the addition of CuO nanoparticles to pure water improves the local and global heat transfer rate by up to 21.33% compared to pure water. On the other hand, it causes an additional deformation of the elastic fin as well as the increase of the stress due to the presence of the nanoparticles, leading to an increase of its maximum displacement of 34.58% compared to the case of pure water flow. Moreover, the enhancement of the flexibility of the fin (and thus its deformation) leads to a relative reduction in terms of convective heat transfer rate, especially downstream of the fin.