Study of non – Newtonian flow, heat transfer and entropy generation characteristics in trapezoidal corrugated channel

Abstract

This study is focused on the thermo-hydraulic and entropy generation characteristics of a non-Newtonian fluid in a trapezoidal shaped wavy channel. The study has been conducted for different Reynolds number ranging from 25 – 100 and power law index varying from 0.5 – 1.5. The variation of average Nusselt number, pressure drop, thermal entropy generation, viscous entropy generation are being calculated. For the discretization of the governing equations, finite volume method is adopted in Ansys Fluent. Average Nusselt number value increases with an increase in the value of Reynolds number and decreases with an increase in power law index. On the other hand, pressure drop decreases on increasing the value of Reynolds number, whereas on increasing the value of power law index, pressure drop value showing a decreasing trend. Thermal entropy generation and viscous entropy generation follows almost the same trend but both having different order of magnitude. The trend shows that on increasing the value of Re both the entropy generations increases whereas on increasing the power law index, it decreases.