Numerical investigation on flow, heat and mass transfer performance of fractional Oldroyd-B hybrid nanofluid as a coolant for power battery

Abstract

This paper introduced for the first time a viscoelastic hybrid nanofluid as the coolant for direct contact cooling power battery. The governing boundary layer equations were established by adopting fractional Oldroyd-B model and fractional Buongiorno’s model. Second-order velocity slip boundary conditions were also considered. Then the solutions were numerically acquired by finite difference coupled with L1 algorithm. Impact of main physical parameters on the flow, heat and mass transfer of the viscoelastic hybrid nanofluid on the cylindrical battery was graphically presented and detailly discussed. Outcomes show that the heat transfer is improved by both Brownian motion(Nb) and thermophoresis(Nt) to different degrees. When Nb grows from 0.05 to 0.1, the average Nusselt number increases by 2.2%, higher than 0.027% of Nt. The slip behavior only affects the velocity distribution near the individual cell and slightly enhances heat and mass transfer. The velocity relaxation fractional derivative contributes to convection, heat and mass transfer on the cell wall, while velocity retardation fractional derivative behaves just the opposite. The proposed viscoelastic hybrid nanofluid with appropriate volume fractions of nanoparticles enhances heat transfer on the cell wall and is strongly recommended as a candidate for power battery coolant.