NUMERICAL STUDY OF NANOFLUID MIXED CONVECTION IN A CHANNEL WITH TWO PROTRUDING HEAT SOURCES

چکیده مقاله

The laminar mixed convection of Cu-water nanofluid in a horizontal channel with two protruding heat sources on the bottom wall is investigated numerically. The two protruding components are maintained at temperature TH. The channel’s top wall and the remaining parts of its bottom wall are adiabatic. The governing equations in the two-dimensional space are discretized using the control volume method. A proper upwinding scheme is employed to obtain stabilized solutions. Using the developed code, a parametric study is undertaken for Reynolds number 1≤ Re ≤50, Rayleigh number 103≤Ra ≤105 and solid volume fraction 0≤ φ ≤0.05. The effects of the Reynolds number and the volume fraction of the nanoparticles on the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the channel are investigated. It was found that increase in the Reynolds number and the volume fraction of the nanoparticles lead to increase in the average Nusselt number. The increase in the volume fraction of the nanoparticles at higher Reynolds numbers has more effects on the increase in the average Nusselt number