Heat transfer & flow of nanofluids in a Y-Type intersection channel with multiple pulsations: A numerical study

Abstract

In this paper, we study pulsed flow and heat transfer in water-Al2O3 nanofluids in a Y-Type intersection channel with two inlets and one outlet. At the two inlets, two sinusoidal velocities with a phase difference of p are applied. We assume that the shear viscosity and the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids depend on the nanoparticles concentration. The motion of the nanoparticles is modeled by a convention-diffusion equation, where the effects of the Brownian motion, thermophoretic diffusion, etc., are included. The effects of pulse frequency, pulse amplitude and nanoparticles concentration on the heat transfer are explored numerically at various Reynolds numbers. The results show that the application of the pulsed flow improves the heat transfer efficiency (Nusselt number) for most of the cases studied. Amongst the four factors considered, the effect of the frequency seems to be the most important.