Convective Heat Transfer in a Three-Dimensional Tubular Exchanger Filled with Pure/Hybrid Water-Based Nanofluid and Exposed to the Magnetic Field Effects

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate, numerically, the effect of different nanoparticle volume fractions, on a heat transfer in a tubular heat exchanger. The main objective is to control this process under the effect of a magnetic field. The nanoparticles used for this analysis include water-based pure (alumina: Al2O3 and copper Cu) and hybrid (Al2O3-Cu) nanoparticles. This work is considered for laminar and stationary conditions in co-current mode flow. The computational analysis is performed under the CFD/Fluent code. The magnetic induction used is around [0.1 to 0.6] Tesla, and is applied in conjunction with the exchanger axis. The comparative study shows that copper nanofluids have a significant effect on heat transfer compared with alumina because: in co-current mode and for B=0T, Re=50 and φ=1% volume fraction of nanoparticles, the efficiency of copper reached 88.25%, while alumina was 87.12%. In addition, the heat transfer coefficient and the friction factor can be controlled by the magnetic field because curves h(B) and Cf(B) show, under the growth of a magnetic field B, the heat transfer coefficient increases autonomously, while the friction coefficient decreases.