Heat transfer enhancement with laminar pulsating nanofluid flow in a wavy channel

In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3-water based nanofluids in a wavy mini-channel under pulsating inlet flow conditions are investigated numerically. The simulations are performed for nanofluid volume fractions, pulsating frequency and amplitude while the other parameters are kept constant by using control volume based cfd solver. The flow is both thermally and hydrodynamically developing while the channel walls are kept at a constant temperature. Results indicate that there is a good potential in promoting the thermal performance enhancement by using the nanoparticles under pulsating flow. Pulsation in nanofluids is a new idea for enhancement of heat transfer. Furthermore, the pulsating flow has an advantage to prevent sedimentation of nanoparticles in the base fluid. Results show that the heat transfer performance increases significantly with increase in nanoparticle volume fraction and with the amplitude of pulsation while the pulsation frequencies have a slight effect. In the pulsating flow conditions the combined effect of pulsation and nanoparticles is favorable for the increasing Nusselt number when compared to the steady flow case. The obtained results are given as dimensionless parameters. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.