A forced convection of water aluminum oxide nanofluid flow and heat transfer study for a three dimensional annular with inner rotated cylinder

The article examines a water alumina nanofluid and heat transfer through the three-dimensional annular. The annular is constructed by the two concentric cylinders in which the inner cylinder can rotate along the tangential direction at a constant speed. A slip boundary condition will be imposed to vanish the viscous effect in the vicinity of the outer cylinder wall. Moreover, the rotating cylinder is kept at a hot temperature, and the outer one is at a cold temperature. A three-dimensional incompressible Navier Stokes and energy equations were carried in cylindrical coordinates. The simulation was observed using the emerging computational tool of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.6, which implements Least Square Galerkin's scheme of finite element method. The parametric study will be done by altering the speed of rotation of the inner cylinder from 1 to 4, volume fraction from 0.001 to 0.9, and the aspect ratio from 0.4 to 0.6 for a fixed Reynolds number of 35,000. The results will be displayed with graphs and tables for average values of the Nusselt number, the percentage change in the temperature, and the skin friction at the middle plan. It was found that the average Nusselt number at the middle of the annular increases before the volume fraction of 0.2 and then decreases for all values of the volume fraction for a fixed rotation of the inner cylinder. The average percentage change relative to the inner cylinder's hot temperature decreases with the volume fraction increase for the fixed rotation. Also, it was found that the quantity of nanoparticles in the domain is improving the average skin friction in the middle of the channel, and it can be reduced by improving the rotation of the inner cylinder by about 10-23% strictly depending upon the aspect ratio for a particular case.

Automated summary

The article investigates heat transfer characteristics of a water alumina nanofluid through a three-dimensional annular. The study found that the average Nusselt number at the middle of the annular increases initially with volume fraction before decreasing, while the average percentage change in temperature relative to the inner cylinder's hot temperature decreases with an increase in volume fraction.