NUMERICAL STUDY OF VARIATION IN DRAG AND VIRTUAL MASS FORCES FOR A NANOFLUID FLOW THROUGH A MICROCHANNEL USING EULERIAN-EULERIAN TWO-PHASE MODEL

Abstract

Laminar forced convection of copper oxide (CuO) and titanium oxide (TiO2 ) water-based nanofluid flow through a microchannel has been studied numerically using a Eulerian–Eulerian two-phase model. The governing equations of the liquid phase and solid phase are solved using sixth-order compact finite difference schemes. The effects of Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume concentrations on drag and virtual mass forces are reported. Estimation of thermal conductivity for nanofluid has been discussed here using two-phase results. Results show that significant heat transfer enhancement is observed with an increase in Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume concentrations compared with pure water. The 2 vol % CuO nanofluid has shown 3.44% and 18.65% enhancement in average Nusselt number compared to pure water for Re = 50 and Re = 600, respectively. An increase in particle concentration from 1% to 3% leads to a 4.45% increase in the average Nusselt number at Re = 200 for CuO nanofluid. A significant change of 26.5% is found in the dimensionless drag force with an increase in Reynolds number from 50 to 600. A negligible change in dimensionless drag force is observed with an increase in nanoparticle concentrations for Re ≥ 200. The virtual mass force is less significant than the drag force for nanofluid flows. Present results show a small deviation between the obtained and experimental thermal conductivity of nanofluid. The developed two-phase numerical model is validated with the numerical and experimental results available in the literature.