Numerical Investigation of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Finned Micro-Channels with Nanofluids

Abstract

Conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy have been solved using Fluent 14 to compute the Nusselt number and wall temperature of a finned rectangular Micro-channel for a laminar flow for water and nanofluids under mixed flow condition. Alumina based water is considered as nano fluid for the present investigation. It has been found from the numerical investigation that as the percentage of alumina is increased in the base fluid (water) the heat transfer rate is increased. It has been found that the wall temperature decreases with increase in fin number. The heat transfer is found to be more in rectangular shaped fin compared to any other shape both for the water and nanofluid. In addition to thermal characteristics, the variation of pressure drop for different fin number has also been investigated.