Wings shape effect on behavior of hybrid nanofluid inside a channel having vortex generator

Abstract

Thermal and flow characteristics of hybrid nanofluid inside a channel having vortex-generator with different wing shapes, is investigated numerically. Three different wing shapes, including rectangular, triangular, and trapezoidal, are considered. The geometrical configuration considered in this work is representative of a channel with three wings in each row; one mounted to the top plate and the other ones mounted to the bottom plate and this trend changes between the plates alternately. MgO-MWCNT (50:50) suspended in the ethylene glycol (EG) as base fluid with volume fractions of 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6% is considered as working fluid. The effects of volume fraction of the nanoparticles and type of wings in the Reynolds number range of 200–1600, are investigated. Heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop and performance evaluation criterion (PEC) are the most important parameters that investigated at different flow conditions. The results shown that rectangular wings leads to increase the heat transfer coefficient. In addition the channel with trapezoidal and triangular wings at the same volume fraction, have the higher values of PEC due to lower pressure drop. Also the result indicated that heat transfer coefficient are enhanced by increasing the nanoparticles volume fraction. According to obtained results, the trapezoidal wings with nanofluid volume of fraction of 0.6 and minimum Reynolds number leads to desirable performance from heat transfer and fluid flow viewpoint.