Enhanced heat transfer performance of sic/water and MWCNT/water nanofluids in micro-cylinder groups

Abstract

The heat transfer enhancement and the flow characteristics of Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes and Silica water-based nanofluids inside micro-cylinder groups are analyzed based on numerical investigations. The simulations of the flow over thirty circular cylinders in an inline arrangement were carried out at low Re numbers (below 300) and volume concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 0.08. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the Influence of nanofluids on heat transfer enhancement inside micro-cylinder groups. The finite volume method was employed to investigate the effect of nanoparticles, volume concentration, and Re number on the flow and thermal enhancement. The analysis of the resulting pressure drops, Nusselt number variation, temperature distributions, and thermal enhancement factor suggest that the pressure drop and Nusselt number increased with the Reynolds number for both nanofluids. This augmentation is caused by the interaction between the nanoparticles and the wall. Additionally, it was observed that the thermal enhancement factor exceeded 1 at lower nanoparticle concentrations. Notably, the SiC/water nanofluid demonstrated the most significant improvement in heat transfer at a volume concentration of 2%.