Prediction of turbulent forced convection of a nanofluid in a tube with uniform heat flux using a two phase approach

Turbulent forced convection heat transfer in a circular tube with a nanofluid consisting of water and 1 vol.% Cu is studied numerically. Two phase mixture model has been implemented for the first time to study such a flow field. A single phase model formulation, which has been used frequently in the past for heat transfer with nanofluids, is also used for comparison with the mixture model. The comparison of calculated results with experimental values shows that the mixture model is more precise than the single phase model. The axial evolution of the flow field and fully developed velocity profiles at different Reynolds numbers are also presented and discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.