Numerical investigations on the turbulent forced convection of nanofluids flow in a triangular-corrugated channel

Abstract

In this paper, turbulent forced convection of nanofluids flow in triangular-corrugated channels is numerically investigated over Reynolds number ranges of 1000-5000. Four different types of nanofluids which are Al2O3, CuO, SiO2 and ZnO-water with nanoparticles diameters in the range of 30-70 nm and the range of nanoparticles volume fraction from 0% to 4% have been considered. The governing equations of mass, momentum and energy are solved using finite volume method (FVM). The low Reynolds number k-ε model of Launder and Sharma is adopted as well. It is found that the average Nusselt number, pressure drop, heat transfer enhancement, thermal-hydraulic performance increase with increasing in the volume fraction of nanoparticles and with decreasing in the diameter of nanoparticles. Furthermore, the SiO2-water nanofluid provides the highest thermal-hydraulic performance among other types of nanofluids followed by Al2O3, ZnO and CuO-water nanofluids. Moreover, the pure water has the lowest heat transfer enhancement as well as thermal-hydraulic performance. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.