Analysis of the Heat Transfer Enhancement in Triangular Microchannel with a Trapezoidal Corrugated Surface and Hybrid Nanofluid

Abstract

The current study has investigated the effects of different wave amplitudes of the trapezoidal corrugated surface in a triangular microchannel on the thermal and hydraulic properties using the finite volume method. The laminar forced convection of CuO-water nanofluid, Ag-water nanofluid, and CuO-Ag/water hybrid nanofluid as working fluid over Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume fraction ranges of 5-500 and 0-0.03, respectively, has been examined. The base of the triangular channel was exposed to 25,000 W/m 2 of heat flux. The results indicate that the shape and wave amplitude have no significant effect on the behavior of streamlines at Re = 5, except in the regions of the crest of the wave where the velocity increases slightly due to the convergence section. The streamlines began to change in shape, especially at the wave amplitude of 125 m and Re above 100, while the temperatures on the corrugated surface decreased as the Reynolds number increased. Furthermore, the skin friction coefficient at Re = 5 for all wave amplitudes is about 10 times higher than the skin friction coefficient at Re = 100. In addition, the results showed that adding a small amount of Ag nanoparticles to the CuO nanofluid enhanced the thermal conductivity of the fluid and thus improved the heat transfer rate.