NUMERICAL STUDY OF THERMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FUEL OIL-ALUMINA AND WATER-ALUMINA NANOFLUID FLOW IN A CHANNEL IN THE LAMINAR FLOW

The present study investigated the thermal effects of the use of nanoparticles in the fuel-oil and water-based fluids, as well as the numerical simulation of laminar flow of fuel-oil-alumina and the water-alumina nanofluids in a channel. A second order discretization method was used for solving equations and a SIMPLE algorithm was applied for pressure-velocity coupling using Fluent. Effect of nanoparticle volume fraction and particles size in different Reynolds numbers (900 <= Re <= 2100) on the convective heat transfer coefficient was studied. The simulation was conducted for three different volume fractions and particle sizes in the laminar flow under constant heat flux. The results showed that adding nanoparticles to the base fluid caused an increase in the thermal conductivity ratio of the fluid, which was observed to a greater degree in the fuel oil-alumina nanofluid than in the water-alumina nanofluid. The increase in nanoparticle volume fraction caused an increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient and the Nusselt number of the nanofluids. The significant point of this study was that in the same volume fraction, the effect of adding alumina nanoparticles to the fuel-oil-based fluid had more effect than adding these particles to water-based fluid, while the effect of increasing the Reynolds number in the water-alumina nanofluid on convective heat transfer coefficient was greater than the fuel-oil-alumina. Also, in the same Reynolds number and volume fraction with increasing size of nanoparticles, the value of the convective heat transfer coefficient was decreased. The results of this study can be used in refineries and petrochemical industries where the fuel-oil fluid flows in the channels.