Numerical study of convective heat transfer from tube bank in cross flow using nanofluid

Abstract

In this paper, laminar convective heat transfer of Al2O3 -water nanofluid flow over tube banks under constant wall temperature conditions has been numerically investigated. The circular-tube banks with staggered arrangement are considered in this study. The governing equations have been solved using finite volume approach based on SIMPLE technique in body-fitted coordinates. The numerical simulations have been conducted for Reynolds number ranging from 100 to 600 with nanoparticles volume fraction ranging from 0 to 0.05. The effect of longitudinal pitch, transverse pitch and nanoparticle concentration on the streamwise and temperature contours, average Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal-hydraulic performance factor have been investigated and discussed. Results showed that the best performance is obtained at longitudinal pitch ratio of 1.5, transverse pitch ratio of 2.5 and nanoparticles volume fraction of 5% over the ranges of Reynolds number. © 2017 The Authors.