Numerical study of heat transfer enhancement in mixed convection flow along a vertical plate with heat source/sink utilizing nanofluids

摘要

Steady, mixed convection laminar boundary layer flow of incompressible nanofluid along the vertical plate with temperature dependent heat source/sink has been investigated numerically. The resulting non-linear governing equations (obtained with the Boussinesq approximation) are solved, using a robust, extensively validated, variational finite element method (FEM) for both spherical and cylindrical shaped nanoparticles with volume fraction ranging up to 4%, with associated boundary conditions and the effect of the parameters governing the problem are discussed. Different water-based nanofluids containing Cu, Ag, CuO, A1_2O_3, and TiO_2 are taken into consideration. The results show that the average Nusselt number is found to decrease for Ag, Cu, CuO, Al_2O_3, and TiO_2. The present study is of immediate interest in next-generation solar film collectors, heat exchangers technology, materials processing exploiting vertical surfaces, geothermal energy storage and all those processes which are highly affected with heat enhancement concept.