Magnetic field effect on nanoparticles migration and heat transfer of water/alumina nanofluid in a channel

The present study is a theoretical investigation of the laminar flow and convective heat transfer of water/alumina nanofluid inside a parallel-plate channel in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. A modified two-component, four-equation, nonhomogeneous equilibrium model was employed for the alumina/water nanofluid, which fully accounted for the effect of the nanoparticle volume fraction distribution. The no-slip condition of the fluid-solid interface is abandoned in favor of a slip condition which appropriately represents the non-equilibrium region near the interface at micro/nano channels. The results obtained indicated that nanoparticles move from the heated walls (nanoparticles depletion) toward the core region of the channel (nanoparticles accumulation) and construct a non-uniform nanoparticles distribution. Moreover, in the presence of the magnetic field, the near wall velocity gradients increase, enhancing the slip velocity and thus the heat transfer rate and pressure drop increase. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.