The effect of nanofluids flow on mixed convection heat transfer over microscale backward-facing step

Laminar mixed convection flow over a 2D horizontal microscale backward-facing step (MBFS) placed in a duct is numerically investigated. The governing equations along with the boundary conditions are solved using the finite volume method (FVM). The upstream wall and the step wall are considered adiabatic, while the downstream wall is heated by uniform heat flux. The straight wall of the duct is maintained at a constant temperature that is higher than the inlet fluid temperature. Different types of nanoparticles such as Al₂O₃, CuO, SiO₂ and ZnO, with volume fractions in the range of 1–4% are used. The nanoparticles diameter was in the range of 25 nm ? d_p ? 70 nm. The expansion ratio was 2 and the step height was 0.96 μm. The Reynolds number was in the range of 0.05 ? Re ? 0.5. The results revealed that the Nusselt number increases with increasing the volume fraction and Reynolds number. The nanofluid of SiO₂ nanoparticles is observed to have the highest Nusselt number value. It is also found that the Nusselt number increases with the decrease of nanoparticle diameter. However, there is no recirculation region was observed at the step and along the duct.     

Influence of carbon nanotubes on heat transfer in MHD nanofluid flow over a stretchable rotating disk: A numerical study

The transfer of heat is an important phenomenon in the several areas due to its numerous applications in industries. Several fluids like water, ethylene glycol and oil, and so on have very‐low thermal conductivities due to which the transfer of heat in these fluids become very low. To enhance heat transfer rate, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) including single‐walled CNTs and multi‐walled CNTs are suspended into base fluids, this mixture is known as nanofluid. The aim of this study is to examine the heat transfer rate of nanofluid in the presence of CNTs over a stretchable rotating disk. The mathematical model, developed by Tiwari and Das, is used and solved numerically by using the shooting method. The impacts of governing constraints on the dimensionless velocities, temperature, skin friction, and Nusselt number are investigated. It is noted that heat transfer rate increases by enhancing the concentration of CNTs into base fluids. The numerical results show that the solid volume fraction of the CNTs augment heat transfer rate more in ethylene glycol as compared with water.     

Heat transfer and fluid flow over microscale backward and forward facing step: A review

Research on convective heat transfer in the microscale backward-facing step (MBFS) and microscale forward-facing step (MFFS) has been extensively conducted in the past decade. This review summarizes numerous researches on the three topics; the first section focuses on studying the effect of the geometry on the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior. The second and the third sections concentrate on the effect of the inclination angle and the flow regime on the fluid flow and heat transfer enhancement. The purpose of this article is to get a clear view and detailed summary of the influence of several parameters such as the geometrical specifications, type of fluids and boundary conditions. The enhancement in the Nusselt number is the main target of such research where correlation equations were developed in numerical and experimental studies are reported.     

Turbulence forced convection heat transfer over double forward facing step flow

Turbulent forced heat transfer for double forward facing step flow was studied numerically. The bottom wall of the channel is heated at uniform temperature and the flow temperature at the upstream is colder than the wall. Two adiabatic steps are located together with different lengths and heights. The solutions are done using commercial code FLUENT which uses finite volume method. The standard k − ε turbulence model is employed to obtain turbulence flow modeling for double forward step. Effects of step heights, step lengths and Reynolds numbers on heat transfer and fluid flow are investigated as main parameters. Results showed that the second step can be use as a control device for both heat transfer and fluid flow.     

Size effect on microscale single-phase flow and heat transfer

The present discussion will focus on the size effect induced by the variation of dominant factors and phenomena in the flow and heat transfer as the device scale decreases. Due to the larger surface to volume ratio for microchannels and microdevices, factors related to surface effects have more impact to microscale flow and heat transfer. For example, surface friction induced flow compressibility makes the fluid velocity profiles flatter and leads to higher friction factors and Nusselt numbers; surface roughness is likely responsible for the early transition from laminar to turbulent flow and the increased friction factor and Nusselt number; the relative importance of viscous force modifies the correlation between Nu and Ra for natural convection in a microenclosure and, other effects, such as channel surface geometry, surface electrostatic charges, axial heat conduction in the channel wall and measurement errors, could lead to different flow and heat transfer behaviors from that at conventional scales.     

Experimental and numerical study of single and two-phase flow and heat transfer in aluminum foams

This paper investigates the flow boiling characteristics of water and FC-72 in aluminum foams. For the experiments, the heat transfer processes prior to nucleate boiling, the onset of nucleate boiling and the hysteresis effect were studied. The temperature jump, marking the transition from nucleate to film boiling was observed for FC-72. Numerical simulations were performed based on water to compare with the experiments. In the single-phase simulations, the Brinkman–Forchheimer and local thermal non-equilibrium models were adopted for the momentum and energy equations, respectively while in the two-phase simulations, the two-phase mixture model was used. Comparisons between the experimental and numerical results show reasonable agreement.     

Second law analysis for microscale flow and heat transfer

In phase change transport devices, capillary forces drive overall circulation of working fluid from an evaporator section to a condenser section, whereas the thin film flows at the evaporating meniscus are driven by capillary and disjoining pressure gradient. An analysis has been provided for the microscale fluid flow and heat transfer in an evaporating extended meniscus. Using the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy generated has been investigated. The geometric configuration that corresponds to the minimization of entropy generated and minimization of fluid flow resistance is identified.     

Experimental and numerical study of convective heat transfer and fluid flow in twisted oval tubes

Twisted oval tube heat exchanger is a type of heat exchanger aims at decreasing the pressure drop of the shell side. In the present study, heat transfer and pressure drop performances of twisted oval tube have been studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental study of the twisted oval tube shows that heat transfer process can be enhanced but also with an increasing of pressure drop when compared with the smooth round tube. The effects of geometrical parameters on the performance of the twisted oval tube have been analyzed numerically. The result reveals that the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor both increase with the increasing of axis ratio a/b, while both decrease with the increasing of twist pitch length P. The influence of a/b and P on the overall performance of the twisted oval tubes are also studied. Aiming at obtaining the heat transfer enhancement mechanism of the twisted oval tube, secondary flow, total velocity and temperature distributions of flow section are given. From the analysis it can be concluded that the emergence of twist in the twisted oval tube results in secondary flow. It exists in the form of spiral flow when a/b is big, but in the form of up and down when a/b is small. It is this secondary flow that changes the total velocity and temperature distributions of the twisted oval tube when compared with a smooth oval tube with the same sectional geometric parameters. Then the synergy angle between velocity vector and temperature gradient is reduced and the heat transfer process is enhanced.     

Experimental and numerical study of sidewall profile effects on flow and heat transfer inside microchannels

The laminar flow characteristics inside slightly tapered silicon microchannels in the hydraulic diameter range of 53–112 μm are investigated. Velocity profiles for planes located at different channel depth are measured using micro resolution particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV). It is revealed that the location of the maximum velocity deviates from the mid-plane along the depth direction due to the wall taper. Numerical simulations are also carried out to examine the effects of the sidewall angle on flow and heat transfer. Large deviation in the velocity profile and consequent significant degradation in heat transfer are observed for considerably tapered microchannels.     

Experimental and numerical study on the heat transfer enhancement over scalene and curved-side triangular ribs

The present study examines the turbulent flow of mixed convection heat transfer enhancement within a rectangular channel considering three different novel shapes of ribs (smooth, scalene, and curved-side triangular). The investigations were conducted experimentally by developing a new test facility, while the numerical computations were carried out using the finite volume method. The experimental work involves constructing of the channel, ribs, and all equipment and measurement instruments. The numerical work is based on ANSYS FLUENT considering the k–ε turbulent model. The results are presented and compared in terms of Nusselt number, friction factor, and performance factors for Reynolds numbers ranging between 3000 and 12,000. By comparing the average values of the numerically obtained Nusselt number with experimental measurements, the data showed a close agreement with a maximum difference of 5%. It also found that scalene triangular ribs (STRs) provide better performance in terms of heat transfer, although introducing a slight increase in friction losses. STRs showed (20%) increase in Nusselt number compared with smooth channel, and 3%–6% increase in Nusselt number compared with curved-side triangular ribs (CTRs). In contrast, CTRs have a lower friction factor value of 5% compared with STRs at a low value of a Reynolds number of 3000. Furthermore, the Nusselt number changes significantly (250% increase) by increasing the value of the Reynolds number from 3000 to 12,000. A thermal performance factor of up to 1.28 was achieved for the STRs at the lowest range of Reynolds' number of 3000. The findings from the present study are of practical importance for industries requiring heat transfer enhancement techniques to improve heat transfer equipment performance.     

Experimental and numerical study of forced convection heat transfer in different internally ribbed tubes configuration using TiO2 nanofluid

TiO₂/water nanofluid is used together with a ribbed tube for heat transfer augmentation. This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation to study the influence of the ribs' pitch distance and ribbed tube configuration on heat transfer using TiO ₂ nanofluid in a turbulent regime with Reynolds numbers of 5000‐40 000. Meanwhile, the fluid properties are assumed to be constant with temperature under uniform heat flux. The average nanoparticle size is 50 nm and volume fractions of 0% to 1% are adopted. The study is accomplished by using the finite volume method, and its objective involves finding a low friction factor and high heat transfer enhancement in the presence of TiO ₂/water nanofluids. In comparison with the plain tube, a helical ribbed tube provides higher performance evaluation criteria (about 2.0%), while circumferentially ribbed tube provides 1.9% and longitudinal ribbed tube provides 1.88%. The helical ribbed tubes with a 5.89 mm pitch distance gave higher turbulent kinetic energy due to a stronger swirl intensity, resulting in a thinner thermal boundary layer and a higher Nusselt number with uniform distribution. The nonlinear models of friction factor and Nusselt number have been predicted with a maximum deviation of ±3% and ±2%, respectively.     

Cu-H_2O纳米流体流动与强化换热的数值模拟研究

模拟纳米流体在三维管道中的流动和强化传热过程,运用数值计算方法研究纳米流体的流动特性和传热机理,探究不同纳米颗粒体积分数和不同纳米颗粒大小在不同雷诺数(Re)下对纳米流体的流动和传热特性的影响。基于DPM模型对纳米流体在圆管中的对流换热进行了数值模拟研究,研究结果表明,在一定范围内,每增加0.5%的体积分数,纳米流体的传热性能平均增强7.82%。随着纳米颗粒的减小,纳米流体的传热系数不断增加。     

Experimental and numerical studies of liquid flow and heat transfer in microtubes

Experimental and numerical studies were conducted to reveal the flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid laminar flow in microtubes. Both the smooth fused silica and rough stainless steel microtubes were used with the hydraulic diameters of 50–100 μm and 373–1570 μm, respectively. For the stainless steel tubes, the corresponding surface relative roughness was 2.4%, 1.4%, 0.95%. The experiment was conducted with deionized water at the Reynolds number from 20 to 2400. The experimental data revealed that the friction factor was well predicted with conventional theory for the smooth fused silica tubes. For the rough stainless steel tubes, the friction factor was higher than the prediction of the conventional theory, and increased as the surface relative roughness increased. The results also confirmed that the conventional friction prediction was valid for water flow through microtube with a relative surface roughness less than about 1.5%. The experimental results of local Nusselt number distribution along the axial direction of the stainless steel tubes do not accord with the conventional results when Reynolds number is low and the relative thickness of the tube wall is high. The numerical study reveals that the large ratio of wall thickness over tube diameter in low Reynolds number region causes significant axial heat conduction in the tube wall, leading to a non-linear distribution of the fluid temperature along the axial direction. The axial heat conduction effect is gradually weakened with the increase of Reynolds number and the decrease of the relative tube wall thickness and thus the local Nusselt number approaches the conventional theory prediction.     

Experimental and numerical study of unsteady non-periodic wall heat transfer under step,ramp and cosine temperature perturbations

An experimental and numerical study of the transient non-periodic wall heat transfer problem is presented. A computer-controlled indoor/outdoor environment simulation system produces any desired variation of the air temperature, thus allowing measurement of the dynamic thermal behaviour of any test wall under the desired boundary conditions. Measurements of the temperature field within the wall, of the heat flow and of the convection coefficients at the wall surfaces are performed during step, ramp and cosine perturbations of the outdoor air temperature. The measurements are in very good agreement with the numerical predictions obtained by a developed finite difference solution procedure. The results showed that in building heat transfer applications, for example in air conditioning, the usual assumption of periodic outdoor conditions may lead to considerable errors in case of a significant temporary deviation of the temperature from periodicity.     

Experimental study of heat transfer in oscillating flow

This paper describes an experimental study of heat transfer in oscillating flow inside a cylindrical tube. Profiles of temperature are taken inside the wall and in the fluid from an instrumented test rig, in different conditions of oscillating flow. Profiles obtained allow the observation of the wall effect on heat transfer. A method using the inverse heat conduction principle allows the characterization of local heat transfers at the fluid-solid interface. Finally, a comparison between global and local approaches of heat transfer shows the difficulty of defining a dimensionless heat flux density to model local heat transfer in oscillating flow.     

Numerical study of hydrodynamic and heat transfer of nanofluid flow in microchannels containing micromixer

In this study heat transfer and fluid flow of Al₂O₃/water nanofluid in two dimensional parallel plate microchannel without and with micromixers have been investigated for nanoparticle volume fractions of ϕ = 0, ϕ = 4%  and base fluid Reynolds numbers of Re_f = 5, 20, 50. One baffle on the bottom wall and another on the top wall work as a micromixer and heat transfer enhancement device. A single-phase finite difference FORTRAN code using Projection method has been written to solve governing equations with constant wall temperature boundary condition. The effect of various parameters such as nanoparticle volume fraction, base fluid Reynolds number, baffle distance, height and order of arrangement have been studied. Results showed that the presence of baffles and also increasing the Re number and nanoparticle volume fraction increase the local and averaged heat transfer and friction coefficients. Also, the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on heat transfer coefficient is more than the friction coefficient in most of the cases. It was found that the main mechanism of enhancing heat transfer or mixing is the recirculation zones that are created behind the baffles. The size of these zones increases with Reynolds number and baffle height. The fluid pushing toward the wall by the opposed wall baffle and reattaching of separated flow are the locations of local maximum heat transfer and friction coefficients.     

Unsteady boundary-layer flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a permeable stretching/shrinking sheet

The unsteady boundary layer flow of a nanofluid over a permeable stretching/shrinking sheet is theoretically studied. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary ones using a similarity transformation, before being solved numerically. The results are obtained for the skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number as well as the velocity, temperature and the nanoparticle fraction profiles for some values of the governing parameters, namely, the unsteadiness parameter, the mass suction parameter, the Brownian motion parameter, the thermophoresis parameter, Prandtl number, Lewis number and the stretching/shrinking parameter. It is found that dual solutions exist for both stretching and shrinking cases. The results also indicate that both unsteadiness and mass suction widen the range of the stretching/shrinking parameter for which the solution exists.     

Experimental heat transfer of nanofluid through an annular duct

This paper is related to heat transfer performance of Al₂O₃/H₂O and TiO₂/H₂O nonofluids through an annular channel with constant wall temperature boundary condition under turbulent flow regime. The constant temperature is applied on the outer wall of the channel. Experimental investigation was done for a wide range of Al₂O₃ and TiO₂ nanoparticle concentrations and Reynolds number. Based on the experimental results, for specific Peclet number, Nusselt number of nanofluids is higher than that of the base fluid. The enhancement increases with increase of nanparticle concentration for both employed nanofluids. Based on the results of this investigation there is no significant difference on the heat transfer enhancement associated with two employed nanofluids.     

Control of separated fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics over a backward facing step

The control of laminar fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics over a backward facing step have been studied by varying location and orientation of a thin adiabatic fin mounted on the top wall. The detailed investigation of geometrical parameters of fin (length, location and orientation) for two different Reynolds numbers is performed numerically and the results are compared to the case without fin. It is found that fin location and orientation can be used to control the primary reattachment point and the peak of local Nusselt number effectively and it acts as a passive controller.     

Analytical study of heat and mass transfer in unsteady MHD radiant flow of Williamson nanofluid over stretching sheet with heat generation and chemical reaction

This paper presents the analytical study of heat and mass transfer in a two-dimensional time-dependent flow of Williamson nanofluid near a permeable stretching sheet by considering the effects of external magnetic field, viscous dissipation, Joule heating, thermal radiation, heat source, and chemical reaction. Suitable transformations are introduced to reformulate the governing equations and the boundary conditions convenient for computation. The resulting sets of nonlinear differential equations are then solved by the homotopy analysis method. The study on the effects of relevant parameters on fluid velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles is analyzed and presented in graphical and tabular forms. Upon comparison of the present study with respect to some other previous studies, a very good agreement is obtained. The study points out that the transfer of heat can substantially be enhanced by decreasing viscoelasticity of the fluid and the transfer of mass can be facilitated by increasing permeability of the stretching sheet.