Numerical study of turbulent flow and heat transfer of Al2O 3-water mixture in a square duct with uniform heat flux

Abstract

Turbulent flow and convective heat transfer of a nanofluid made of Al 2O3 (1-4 vol.%) and water through a square duct is numerically studied. Single-phase model, volumetric concentration, temperature-dependent physical properties, uniform wall heat flux boundary condition and Renormalization Group Theory k-? turbulent model are used in the computational analysis. A comparison of the results with the previous experimental and numerical data revealed 8.3 and 10.2 % mean deviations, respectively. Numerical results illustrated that Nu number is directly proportional with Re number and volumetric concentration. For a given Re number, increasing the volumetric concentration of nanoparticles does not have significant effect on the dimensionless velocity contours. At a constant dimensionless temperature, increasing the particle volume concentration increases the size of the temperature profile. Maximum value of dimensionless temperature increases with increasing x/Dh value for a given Re number and volumetric concentration. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.