Numerical study of hydrodynamic and heat transfer of nanofluid flow in microchannels containing micromixer

In this study heat transfer and fluid flow of Al2O3/water nanofluid in two dimensional parallel plate microchannel without and with micromixers have been investigated for nanoparticle volume fractions of ϕ = 0, ϕ = 4% and base fluid Reynolds numbers of Ref = 5, 20, 50. One baffle on the bottom wall and another on the top wall work as a micromixer and heat transfer enhancement device. A single-phase finite difference FORTRAN code using Projection method has been written to solve governing equations with constant wall temperature boundary condition. The effect of various parameters such as nanoparticle volume fraction, base fluid Reynolds number, baffle distance, height and order of arrangement have been studied. Results showed that the presence of baffles and also increasing the Re number and nanoparticle volume fraction increase the local and averaged heat transfer and friction coefficients. Also, the effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on heat transfer coefficient is more than the friction coefficient in most of the cases. It was found that the main mechanism of enhancing heat transfer or mixing is the recirculation zones that are created behind the baffles. The size of these zones increases with Reynolds number and baffle height. The fluid pushing toward the wall by the opposed wall baffle and reattaching of separated flow are the locations of local maximum heat transfer and friction coefficients.