Heat transfer and flow of nanofluids: Effect of shear thinning viscosity

Abstract

In this paper, we study the heat transfer and flow characteristics of a pressure-driven flow of nanofluids between two plates. For modelling the motion of nanoparticles, a concentration convection–diffusion equation is applied, where the effect of the Brownian motion and thermophoretic diffusion are included. We consider that the shear viscosity and the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids depend on the concentration of the nanoparticles. Furthermore, the viscosity is also a function of shear rate, which has been widely observed by many experiments. The flow is assumed to be fully developed and steady state. The effect of the dimensionless parameters related to shear thinning viscosity, thermal diffusivity, particle transport flux, etc., are studied numerically.