Numerical investigation of heat transfer at a rectangular channel with combined effect of nanofluids and swirling jets in a vehicle radiator

Abstract

The present study is focused on the numerical investigation of heat transfer from a heated surface by using swirling jets and nanofluids. Consequences of discrete Reynolds number, inlet configuration and types of nanofluids (pure water, Al2O3-H2O, Cu- H2O, and TiO2- H2O) were studied numerically on heat transfer and fluid flow. As a base coolant Al2O3-H2O nanofluid was chosen for all parameters. So, a numerical analysis was done by using a k-ω turbulent model of PHOENICS Computational Fluid Dynamics code. It is determined that increasing Reynolds number from Re=12000 to 21000 causes an increment of 51.3% on average Nusselt Number. Using 1-jet causes an increase of 91.6% and 29.8% on average Nusselt number according to the channel flow and 2-jet. Using Cu-H2O nanofluid causes an increase of 3.6%, 7.6%, and 8.5% on the average Nusselt number with respect to TiO2- H2O, Al2O3- H2O and pure water.