Heat Transfer Analysis of Nanofluid in a Sine Wave Plate Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Heat transfer is one of the most critical processes in the industry, and by increasing the efficiency of the heat exchanger, energy consumption of systems will be reduced. Very tiny particles in nanoscale dimensions, when uniformly dispersed and stably suspended in the base fluid, efficiently improve the thermal properties of the base fluid. With the help of nanofluids, the heat transfer rate increase. The purpose of this research is to investigate the thermal and hydraulic characteristics of nanofluid in turbulent flow regime in a plate heat exchanger with a sine pattern in which cold and hot flows alternately pass through the plates. First, problem geometry is modeled and simulated in ANSYS-FLUENT software. All properties of nanoparticles are dependent on temperature, velocity, and particles diameter, and are added to software in the form of a separate code. Simulations are for different parameters such as wavelength to amplitude ratio (L/A), Reynolds number, volume fractions of nanoparticles and nanoparticle diameter. The results indicate that the best shape of the wave for the highest heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger is gained for equal wave amplitude and wave length.