Numerical evaluation of the effect of nano-additive type on the second-law performance of γ-AlOOH nano-fluid flow in a wavy microchannel

The present investigation addresses the impacts of nanoadditive (NA) type on the irreversibility aspects of gamma-AlOOH nanofluid (NF) flow in a sinusoidal channel. To this aim, the two-phase mixture technique is employed to solve the governing formulas. The considered NA types are platelet, cylindrical, blade, brick, and spherical. The effect of Reynolds number and NA volume fraction on the local and global irreversibilities due to friction and heat transfer are numerically examined for various NA types. The results showed that the application of the platelet and spherical NA types respectively leads to the highest and lowest increment in the viscosity of the NF. Besides, it was found the highest and lowest thermal conductivity respectively belongs to the NFs composed of cylindrical and platelet NA types. In addition, it was depicted that the NF with platelet type NA presents the maximum frictional, thermal, and total irreversibilities, while the minimum values belongs to the NF with spherical NA type. Moreover, the findings revealed that boosting the phi and Re causes an increment in the frictional and thermal irreversibilities. Furthermore, it was reported that the thermal irreversibility has a more contribution in the total irreversibility compared to the frictional irreversibility.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of different nanoadditive types on the irreversibility of gamma-AlOOH nanofluid flow in a sinusoidal channel. The results reveal that the type of nanoadditive affects the viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluid, and increasing the volume fraction and Reynolds number leads to higher irreversibilities.