Nanofluid flow and shear layers between two parallel plates: a simulation approach

The impact of presence of nano-scale particles inside a flow between two flat plates which known as Poiseuille flow is numerically analyzed. Nanofluids have been investigated in the past few years mainly by considering the heat transfer aspect in a fully developed section of internal flows, rather than detailing the hydrodynamic and thermal developing viewpoint of nanofluid. In other words, this research will focus on the fundamental understanding of developing nanoparticles flows in hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers in the entrance region. Therefore, flow between two flat plates is numerically studied here by injecting and tracking nanoparticles from inlet to outlet of the channel. The flow is kept in the laminar regime with uniform heat flux applied on the plates. ANSYS Fluent 19.3 is used to numerically solve the continuity and momentum equations, as well as discrete phase modeling for particles. The results showed three major stages in vorticity development in the entrance region. It was found that Brownian motion plays an important role in nanoparticles migration, and close to the wall with the involvement of Thermophoresis. Also, nanoparticles can deviate from flow layers after merging boundary layers.