Comparative study of thermo-structural analysis of nano-fluid flow in a baffle-corrugation rectangular channel for adoptable sustainable multifunctional application

Abstract

Recent years have seen a rise in interest in and usage of thermo-hydraulic research of nano-fluid flow phenomena in a variety of engineering applications. Under uniform heat flux, thermo-physical characteristics of nano-fluid flow in baffle-corrugation rectangular channels have been observed from a numerical standpoint for various Reynolds numbers and different values of the aspect ratio of baffles. Employing the finite volume method, the governing equations have been solved and to visualize the simulation results, fluent software has been employed. Four various types of baffle-corrugation shapes (plane, trapezoidal, isosceles, and triangular) with their interchanged positions have been examined in the present analysis. Different types of base fluids viz., water, glycerin, and ethylene glycol, four distinct forms of nanoparticles, Al2O3, CuO, SiO2, and ZnO are assumed to be transmitted for varying values of volume fractions (D%) and diameter of nanoparticles. From the present study, it is found that in the presence of plane baffle-isosceles corrugation provides the highest average Nusselt number ([Formula: see text]) than the rest of the baffles. It is revealed that SiO2 nano-fluid provides the highest [Formula: see text] in comparison to other nano-fluids. Further, it is concluded that [Formula: see text] enhances with the enhancement of D%, Reynolds number (Re), height, and pitch of the baffles and is found to decrease as the diameter of nanoparticles increases. This study also indicates that glycerin-SiO2 provides the highest [Formula: see text] than the rest of the base fluids.