Heat Transfer Enhancement of Wavy Channels Using Al2O3 Nanoparticles

The possibility of enhancing the rate of convective heat transfer is investigated in a sinusoidal wavy channel by adding Al2O3 nanoparticles to water. Assuming the flow to be periodically developed, the fluid physical properties to be constant, and the heat flux to be uniform on all surfaces, a finite volume technique will be used to solve the (uncoupled) PDEs governing heat and momentum transfer equations. The effects of the Reynolds number and channel aspect ratio will be investigated on the rate of heat transfer and wall shear stress distribution for different solid concentrations. Numerical results show that adding nanoparticles to water can significantly increase the rate of heat transfer with a subsequent increase in the wall shear stress. Based on the results obtained in this work it is concluded that for a wavy channel working under laminar flow conditions, oxide nanoparticles are more effective when the Reynolds number is at the high end and the channel curvature is acute. Interestingly, the overall wall shear stress ratio was found to be quite insensitive to the Reynolds number and/or the channel curvature.