Hydrothermal analysis of water-Al2O3 nanofluid flow through a sudden expansion channel with intermediate step

Abstract

This work presents the dynamic behavior of the laminar nanofluid hydrothermal flow through a sudden expansion channel with the variations in the normalized length, height, and pitch to width ratio of the intermediate step. The governing equations have been discretized by means of the finite volume method, and the SIMPLE algorithm has been applied to solve the system of algebraic equations. The effect of variations in the Reynolds number (Re), normalized height (B/C), normalized length (A/C), and step pitch-width ratio (A/B) on the enhancement of heat transfer have been studied. At various values of A/C, A/B and B/C, this work indicates that the average Nusselt number (Nuavg), thermal resistance factor (R), and performance number (PN) increase with the increase in Re. In the case of the hydrothermal flow phenomena, the configuration associated with B/C provides better results than the configurations associated with A/B and A/C. As an important outcome, we see that the presence of intermediate step enhances the average Nusselt number, and thermal resistance factor. This will become very much helpful for various realistic circumstances for triggering additional thermo-mechanical loads on the surface.