Numerical simulation on forced thermal flow of nanofluid in the gap between co-axial cylinders with rotational inner spindle

Abstract

In this paper, developing laminar forced convection of TiO2/ethylene glycol (EG) nanofluid in the gap between co-axial cylinders with an angular speed of inner cylinder, submitted to a constant and uniform temperature at the wall, is analyzed through the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Taking constant thermal physical properties into account, the volume of fluid (VOF) model is employed to simulate developing laminar forced thermal flow with two phases of air and nanofluid in the between co-axial cylinders. The numerical solutions based on the different conditions, including volume fraction of nanoparticle in base fluid, the gap between co-axial cylinder, the aggregation of nanoparticle, and rotational speed of inner cylinder, are accomplished in terms of temperature and velocity distributions for heat flux and shear stress, respectively. Particularly, the results showed that as the volume fraction was 10%, the heat flux was increased by 23%, compared to the base fluid; and when the angular speed of inner spindle was varied from 5rad/s to 25rad/s, the heat flux could be raised by 20%. Based on the numerical solutions, the correction of heat transfer was also developed for engineering applications in this work.