Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer Research
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2019

In the present study, an analytical investigation on the entropy generation examination for viscoelastic fluid flow involving inclined magnetic field and non-linear thermal radiation aspects with the heat source and sink over a stretching sheet has been done. The boundary layer governing partial differential equations were converted in terms of appropriate similarity transformations to non-linear coupled ODEs. These equations were solved utilizing Kummer's function so as to figure the entropy generation. Impacts of different correlated parameters on the profiles velocity and temperature, also on entropy generation were graphically provided with more information. Based on the results, it was revealed that the existence of radiation and heat source parameters would reduce the entropy production and at the same time aligned magnetic field, Reynolds number, dimensionless group parameter, Hartmann number, Prandtl number, and viscoelastic parameters would produce more entropy. The wall temperature gradient was additionally computed and compared with existing results from the literature review, and demonstrates remarkable agreement.

Nanofluids are new heat transfer fluids, which improve thermal performance while reducing the size of systems. In this study, the numerical domain as a three-dimensional copper mini tube was simulated to study the characteristics of flow and heat transfer of CuO/H2O nanofluid, flowed horizontally within it. The selected model for this study was a two-phase mixture model. The results indicated that nanofluids with the platelet nanoparticles have better thermal performance than other shapes of nanoparticles such as cylindrical, Blade, Brick, and spherical nanoparticles, respectively. By studying the flow characteristics, it was found that the pressure drop and friction factor of the nanofluids are dependent on the shape of the nanoparticles so that the nanofluids containing spherical nanoparticles have the lowest reduction in the friction factor and nanofluids containing platelet-shaped nanoparticles have the highest reduction in friction factor. Furthermore, as new formulas, two correlations were suggested to calculate the Nusselt number of nanofluids according to the effect of nanoparticle shape on the laminar and turbulent flow regimes.

In this study, the effect of the tube material on the thermal stress generated in a vertical shell and tube heat exchanger is investigated. Shell and tube heat exchangers are the most common heat exchangers used in industries. One of the most common failures in these exchangers in the industry is the tube failure at the junction of the tube to tubesheet. When the shell side and the tube side fluid with temperature difference, flow in the heat exchangers, a temperature gradient occurs in the tube. Temperature gradients cause thermal stress in the tube, especially at the junction of the tube to tubesheet where there is no possibility of expansion and contraction. Therefore, in this study, it was tried to make changes in order to reduce the effect of thermal stress in the failure. For this purpose, temperature distribution, thermal stress distribution, and its effects on failure were investigated by changing the material. In order to perform the required analysis, three dimensional models of the inlet zone of the shell side were created, and steady state temperature distribution was obtained, and the stress caused by temperature gradient was analyzed. Because of the interference between fluid and structure in this study, the indirectly coupled field analysis was used. In this way, the thermal analysis results were converted into indirect couple structural analysis as loading. Among the analyzed materials, the lowest rate of stress is for the copper tubes. However, steel tubes have the best safety factor regarding thermal stress.

In this study, the thermal characteristics of turbulent nanofluid flow in a helical tube in the tube heat exchanger (HTTHE) were assessed numerically through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The findings of both the turbulent models: realizable k-epsion (k-ε) and re-normalisation group (RNG) k-epsilon were compared. The temperature distribution contours show that realizable and RNG k-ε models, together with the swirl dominated flow are of more uniform temperature distributions. The proper prediction of two layer theory leads to having a uniform temperature distribution and proper dimensionless wall distance (Y+). The turbulent flow and heat transfer of two nanofluids (SiO2, Al2O3) and base fluid with respect to swirl dominated flow was simulated through the RNG model. The effects of the concentration of nanoparticles on heat transfer characteristics in HTTHE and two turbulent models were analyzed in a comprehensive manner. It is concluded that up to 1% concentration of SiO2 and 1% concentration of Al2O3, similar heat transfer characteristics are observed. Comparison between the CFD results with the predicted values for friction factor coefficient (f) and Nusselt number (Nu) calculated through experimental correlations indicate the maximum errors of 6.56% and 0.27%, respectively.

In this study, the thermal performance of three kinds of roofs with different heat capacity and thermal conductivity under different external conditions has been investigated using a numerical method. For this purpose, the combined solar radiation, conduction and convection heat transfer were calculated implicitly in terms of a one-dimensional finite difference method. Different high and low solar radiation conditions in two common climates in the Middle East, including hot-humid and hot-dry, were considered. The effect of roofing materials was investigated in terms of their thermal storage and overall heat transfer coefficient. Moreover, the time lags and decrement factors were evaluated to compare the performance of the roof. The numerical model has been validated using EnergyPlus. The results indicate that the roof with high thermal storage and low thermal conductivity has better performance in comparison to others. However, the total heat gains are not linearly proportional to the overall heat transfer coefficients, e.g. here, the ratios of a total load of roof 1 to roofs 2 and 3 are about 12 percent lower than the ratio of overall heat transfer coefficients. Furthermore, the solar radiation intensity had considerable effects on time lags. Finally, it can be concluded that the external conditions have no significant effect on the decrement factor.

The mixing of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in a magnetic micro-mixer was studied numerically using  ferrofluid. The mixing process was performed in a three-dimensional steady-state micro-mixer. A magnetic source was mounted at the entrance of the micro-channel to oscillate the magnetic particles. The effects of electric current, inlet velocity, size of magnetic particles, and non-Newtonian fluid were examined on the mixing efficiency. It was demonstrated that the mixing efficiency would increase with applied current and the size of magnetic particles. The inlet velocity has an inverse effect on the enhancement of the mixing efficiency. It is found that electric currents of 0A and 50A would lead to the mixing efficiency of 10% and 83%, respectively. In addition, the results of the present work revealed that the mixing efficiency of a non-Newtonian fluid (blood) is smaller than that of a Newtonian one.

Extended surfaces are one of the most important approaches to increase the heat transfer rate. According to the Fourier law, the heat transfer increases by increasing the contact surface of body and fluid. In this study, the effect of heat transfer has been investigated on two sets of engineered porous fins, in which the balls with different materials are sintered together. The fluid flow through the channel is considered incompressible, steady and three-dimensional. In this study, fins made of copper, aluminum and steel balls with 0.6 and 1.7 mm diameters in single-row, two-row modes are studied, and the heat transfer and pressure drop through these fins are checked. Also, the surface and volume analysis of the rigid and porous fins is also provided. In addition, the effect of diameter and material of the balls on the temperature distribution and heat transfer coefficient is examined in two cases of constant flux and constant temperature at the base. The results show that the steel fin has a different heat transfer behavior compared to other fins; the suitable material for the constant pressure and constant flux are copper and aluminum, respectively. Also, it is found that utilization of this type of connection decrease the volume of the fin about 39% of and increase the surface are about 37%.