Numerical analysis of nanofluid flow in nonisothermal channel flow

This study investigates the nanofluid for a nonisothermal channel flow under the effect of a constant pressure gradient acting along the channel axis. In the first part of the present study, the theoretical and experimental models commonly encountered in the literature (Einstein, Batchelor, Brinkman, Wang, Chen and Heyhat models) are compared by observing temperature and velocity profiles and are examined for compliance with each other. In the second part of the present study, the effects of volume fraction, pressure gradient and Reynolds numbers on velocity and temperature profiles are investigated for the alumina-water nanofluid. In addition, pressure gradient for different volumetric flow rate and shear stress distribution along the channel center are examined as well. In this part, to consider the effect of thermal conductivity and viscosity which situate in the momentum and the energy equations, Brinkman and Maxwell model depending volumetric concentration are used respectively. Two-dimensional, non-isothermal, hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed, steady flow of an incompressible fluid inside a channel is taken into consideration. Upper and lower walls of the channel are kept at the same constant heat flux and are assumed that alumina-water nanofluid is the homogeneous and single-phase fluid. Discretization is performed using a Pseudospectral technique based on Chebyshev polynomial expansions. The resulting nonlinear, coupled boundary value problem is numerically solved using Fortran computer program with Chebyshev pseudospectral method.