TY - JOUR
TI - Mixed convection analysis of nanofluid flow inside an indented microchannel
AU - Bouaraour Kamel
AU - Lalmi Djemoui
AU - Mohamed Sidi Mohamed Salem
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2024
VL - 28
IS - 5
SP - 4321
EP - 4331
PT - Article
AB - The present investigation employed computational techniques to analyze the heat transfer and fluid-flow properties of a Cu-water nanofluid moving through a rectangular micro-channel. The upper wall of the micro-channel is thermally insulated, while the lower wall is equipped with a ribbed surface maintained at a greater temperature than the fluid entering the channel. The governing equations were discretized using the finite volume method and solved using the ANSYS-FLU-ENT 16.0 CFD software. The study investigated the influence of many parameters, such as the Reynolds number (20 ≤ Re ≤ 200), volume percentages of nanoparticles (1% ≤ φ ≤ 8%), and rib height. The numerical results demonstrate that when the height of the ribs rises, e = 20 μm, e = 30 μm, and e = 40 μm, the contact surface area between the ribs and the nanofluid similarly increases. As a result, the friction factor of the heated surface rises, regardless of whether the Reynolds numbers are low or high. Furthermore, numerical analysis suggest that the aver-age friction factor diminishes as the Reynolds number rises for all rib heights. Ribs in the micro-channel facilitate improved mixing, resulting in heightened heat transfer. The impact is intensified by augmenting the concentration of nanoparticles and the Reynolds numbers at all rib heights.