Study of hybrid nanofluid flow in a stationary cone-disk system with temperature-dependent fluid properties

Abstract

Cone-disk systems find frequent use such as conical diffusers, medical devices, various rheometric, and viscosimetry applications. In this study, we investigate the three-dimensional flow of a water-based Ag-MgO hybrid nanofluid in a static cone-disk system while considering temperature-dependent fluid properties. How the variable fluid properties affect the dynamics and heat transfer features is studied by Reynolds’s linearized model for variable viscosity and Chiam’s model for variable thermal conductivity. The single-phase nanofluid model is utilized to describe convective heat transfer in hybrid nanofluids, incorporating the experimental data. This model is developed as a coupled system of convective-diffusion equations, encompassing the conservation of momentum and the conservation of thermal energy, in conjunction with an incompressibility condition. A self-similar model is developed by the Lie-group scaling transformations, and the subsequent self-similar equations are then solved numerically. The influence of variable fluid parameters on both swirling and non-swirling flow cases is analyzed. Additionally, the Nusselt number for the disk surface is calculated. It is found that an increase in the temperature-dependent viscosity parameter enhances heat transfer characteristics in the static cone-disk system, while the thermal conductivity parameter has the opposite effect.