Assessing the heat transfer enhancement of turbulent nanofluid flow in a uniformly heated channel. CFD investigation

In this work, a numerical investigation is carried out aiming to simulate forced convective heat transfer of nanofluid flow in the turbulent regime. The Water-AL2O3 nanofluid flows in a 2D horizontal and circular channel, where its outer wall is maintained to a constant temperature. The effect of different parameters such as Reynolds number Re ranging from 2 104 to 105 and the nanoparticles solid volume fraction phi going from 1% to 5% on the heat transfer variation presented in terms of Nusselt number Nu is examined in this study. Validation of the used computational fluid dynamics model configuration in turbulent regime with analytical and experimental previous works is performed and evaluated. Findings show the relationship between solid volume fraction phi, Reynolds number Re and the Nusselt number Nu in the considered regime. More precisely, in the mentioned nanofluid flow, a heat transfer improvement is recorded with 12% proportionally with increasing Re and phi.