A computational investigation for heat and fluid transport with electro-osmosis phenomenon in a scraped surface heat exchanger

Abstract

Scraped surface heat exchangers (SSHEs) have prominently shown their eminence in various food, chemical and in pharmaceutical industries when the regular processing of fluids and pertinent materials is encountered. The heat transfer analysis of Williamson fluid flow with electro osmotic effects in a narrow-gap SSHE is designed by implementing constant temperature difference between the gaps of the rotor and the stator. A fluid model is established by using lubrication approximation theory and Debye-Huckel simplifications. The computational solution is elaborated by implementing renowned BVP4C technique in MATLAB. Exact solution of Poisson-Boltzmann equation for different scenarios of SSHE is gathered, whereas solution for velocity, stream functions and temperature in various parts of SSHE are explored computationally. Impact of various crucial physical flow parameters like, Weissenberg number, mobility of the medium number, electro osmotic parameter on the velocity profile, stream function, temperature profile, and pressure gradient has been explored graphically. The numerical solution is compared with artificial neural network (ANN) and an absolute alignment of BVP4C solution is observed with ANN solution. It is reported that fluid flow is lifted with enhancing the viscoelastic behavior and exhibits dual behavior for electroosmosis phenomenon and mobility of medium parameter. Also, it is seen that temperature of the fluid is significantly declines with Weissenberg number and is surges with enhancing mobility of medium and Brinkman number. By increasing the Brinkman number conduction phenomenon is slow down and heat produced due to viscous dissipation, raises the temperature of the fluid. The viscoelastic effect could be of enormous significance in applications, like Polymer processing in certain heat exchangers, and in mixing and blending foodstuffs etc.