Numerical Simulation of Laminar Forced Convection Heat Transfer of Two Square Prisms Inside Nanofluids

Abstract

Forced convection heat transfer for steady free stream flow past two isothermal prisms inside different nanofluids has been studied numerically. Nanofluids have been consisted of Al2O3 and CuO nanoparticles with different particle diameters (dnp = 30nm and 100nm) and different particle volumetric concentrations (0% < φ < 4%). Besides, water is used as base fluid for all nanofluids. In this research the recent correlations are used for viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The correlations are function of temperature and particle volumetric concentration. The present numerical simulations have been performed for Pe < 200 in which the flow is steady and laminar. The results show that the heat transfer coefficients for all nanofluids are higher than the base fluid (water). These enhancements are more considerable in high Peclet numbers and high particle volumetric concentrations. In addition, among the tested nanofluids, the CuO/water with 4% particle volumetric concentration and 100nm particle diameter finds to be the best nanofluid to increase the heat transfer. The effect of nanofluids on increasing heat transfer is lower for second prism as compared with the first one.