OpenFOAM simulation of hydrodynamic characteristics of non-Newtonian green nanofluid flow over a flat plate

Due to the world's high energy requirement and growing environmental concerns, renewable power systems such as parabolic trough solar collectors (PTSC) have become more efficient. This research delves into the performance of a model related to the PTSC absorber tube section of TiO 2 -water nanofluid, i.e., a green, non-toxic alternative to conventional nanofluids. In this research, a non-Newtonian fluid with a shear-thinning viscosity model has been considered. This model utilizes the open-source CFD code and OpenFOAM to simulate the laminar flow over a flat plate for various inlet flow velocities. It is observed that the magnitude and spatial gradient of the wall shear stress increase strongly with increasing inlet velocity. Moreover, slow flow rates produce almost uniform, low-magnitude stress distributions, whereas higher flow rates amplify both the stress level and its spatial variation. These observations are consistent with the expected behavior of an external flow of a power-law fluid and thus will prove to be important in characterizing deformation, stress localization, and flow-structure interaction.