Laminar convective heat transfer characteristic of Al2O3/water nanofluid in a circular microchannel

Abstract

In this study, laminar convective heat transfer characteristics Al2O3/water nanofluid in a circular microchannel is investigated using a two-phase (discrete phase) model. The computational fluid dynamic code FLUENT (ANSYS) is employed to solve the coupled momentum and energy equations with the boundary conditions of uniform wall heat flux and velocity at channel inlet. Detail analysis is done showing variation of wall temperature, fluid bulk mean temperature, heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, shear stress, friction, pressure drop, entropy generation etc. along the microchannel at two particle volume concentrations (1% and 4%) of the nanofluid. Comparison of results is provided between base and nanofluid and also for two cases, one with constant property and the other with variable temperature thermal conductivity and viscosity. Results show that heat transfer is enhanced in case of the nanofluid with low entropy generation and the heat transfer parameters increase with increase in nanoparticle volume concentration and Reynolds number. However, use of nanofluid also causes increase in pressure drop and shear stress. A comparison of the constant and variable property model showed that heat transfer is further enhanced; entropy, shear stress and pressure drop further decrease when temperature dependent properties of the nanofluid are considered instead of constant properties.