Colloidal solvents, containing dispersed nanometer (~1-100 nm) sized particles, are categorized as nanofluids. With the growing heat loads in engineering systems that exceed the current technological limits, nanofluids are considered as an attractive option for more efficient heat removal for thermal management applications. Recent results reported in the literature show that the thermo-physical properties of coolants are enhanced considerably when seeded with very minute concentrations of nanoparticles. Hence, nanofluids research has provoked interest in thermal management applications. The convective heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids are reported in this study. Exfoliated graphite nanoparticles were dispersed in poly-alpha-olefin (PAO) at concentrations of 0.3% and 0.6% (by weight). The heat flux into a convective cooling apparatus was monitored and the results for nanofluid and the base fluid are presented. Thermo-physical properties of the nanofluid were measured and compared with the base fluid. The thermo-physical properties of the fluid are observed to increase with the addition of the nanoparticles. The specific heat of nanofluid was increased by ~50% compared to PAO. The thermal diffusivity was enhanced by ~400% compared to PAO. The viscosity of the nanofluid was enhanced by 10-1000 times compared to PAO. The viscosity of the nanofluid was observed to increase with temperature while the viscosity of PAO decreases with temperature. The convective heat flux was enhanced by the nanofluids by up to ~8 % for experiments performed at different heat inputs. The experimental results show that the convective heat transfer enhancement potentially results from the precipitation of nanoparticles on the heated surface and results in enhanced heat transfer surfaces (“nano-fins”).

A numerical prediction using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC)has been performed on low speed gas flows through a short parallel plate microchannel(L/Dh=6). Computations were carried out for nitrogen, argon, and helium gas. Micro pressure driven flows are simulated with the inlet value of the Knudsen numbers ranging from 0.09 to 0.2. The effects of varying pressure, wall temperature, inlet flow and gas transport properties on the wall heat transfer, pressure and velocity distribution were examined. Friction factors and heat transfer from the channel were also calculated and compared with those of previous studies. Finally, the averaged Nusselt number was correlated in a simple form of the averaged Peclet number and Knudsen number in the transition flow regime.

This study experimentally investigates the effects of rotation, the buoyancy force, and the channel aspect ratio on heat transfer in two-pass rotating rectangular channels. The experiments are conducted with two surface conditions: smooth walls and 45?? angled ribbed walls. The channel aspect ratios include 4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2 and 1:4. Four Reynolds numbers are studied: 5000, 10000, 25000 and 40000. The rotation speed is fixed at 550 rpm for all tests, and for each channel, two channel orientations are studied: 90?? and 45?? or 135??, with respect to the plane of rotation. Rib turbulators are placed on the leading and trailing walls of the channels at an angle of 45?? to the flow direction. The ribs have a 1.59 by 1.59 mm square cross section, and the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) is 10 for all tests. The effects of the local buoyancy parameter and channel aspect ratio on the regional Nusselt number ratio are presented. Pressure drop data are also measured for both smooth and ribbed channels in rotating and non-rotating conditions. The results show that increasing the local buoyancy parameter increases the Nusselt number ratio on the trailing surface and decreases the Nusselt number ratio on the leading surface in the first pass for all channels. However, the trend of the Nusselt number ratio in the second pass is more complicated due to the strong effect of the 180?? turn. Results are also presented for this critical turn region of the two-pass channels. In addition to these regions, the channel averaged heat transfer, friction factor, and thermal performance are determined for each channel. With the channels having comparable Nusselt number ratios, the 1:4 channel has the superior thermal performance because it incurs the least pressure penalty. In this study, the author is able to systematically analyze, correlate, and conclude the thermal performance comparison with the combination of rotation effects on five different aspect ratio channels with both smooth walls and rib turbulated walls.

The research focuses on testing the heat transfer enhancement in a channel for different spacing of the rib turbulators. Those ribs are put on the surface in the two pass rectangular channel with an aspect ratio of AR=1:2. The cross section of the rib is 1.59 x 1.59 mm. Those ribs are put on the leading and trailing walls of the channel with the angle of flow attack to the mainstream of 45°. The rotating speed is fixed at 550-RPM with the channel orientation at β=90°. Air is used as the coolant through the cooling passage with the coolant-to-wall density ratio ( ρ ρ ∆ ) maintained around 0.115 in the first pass and 0.08 in the second pass. The Reynolds numbers are controlled at 5000, 10000, 25000, and 40000. The rib spacing-to-height ratios (P/e) are 3, 5, 7.5, and 10. The heat transfer coefficient and friction factor are measured to determine the effect of the different rib distributions. Stationary cases and rotational cases are examined and compared. The result shows that the highest thermal performance is P/e=5 for the stationary case and P/e=7.5 for the rotating case.

In this work, we have numerically studied the effect of the vorticity on the enhancement of heat transfer in a channel flow. In the first part of the work, we focus on the investigation of a channel flow with a vortex street as the incoming flow. We propose a model to simulate the fluid dynamics. We find that the flow exhibits different properties depending on the value of four dimensionless parameters. In particularly, we can classify the flows into two types, active and passive vibration, based on the sign of the incoming vortices. In the second part of the work, we discuss the heat transfer process due to the flows just described and investigate how the vorticity in the flow improves the efficiency of the heat transfer. The temperature shows different characteristics corresponding to the active and passive vibration cases. In active vibration cases, the vortex blob improves the heat transfer by disrupting the thermal boundary layer and preventing the decay of the wall temperature gradient throughout the channel, and by enhancing the forced convection to cool down the wall temperature. The heat transxfer performance is directly related to the strength of the vortex blobs and the background flow. In passive vibration cases, the corresponding heat transfer process is complicated and varies dramatically as the flow changes its properties. We also studied the effect of thermal parameters on heat transfer performance. Finally, we propose a more realistic optimization problem which is to minimize the maximum temperature of the solids with a given input energy. We find that the best heat transfer performance is obtained in the active vibration case with zero background flow.

Laminar and turbulent natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow processes in asymmetrically heated vertical parallel flat plate channels have been investigated both experimentally and numerically. The experimental part of the investigation was carried out using a fibre optic Laser-Doppler Anemometer (LDA) together with a temperature probe and data acquisition system. The numerical analysis was done using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code PHOENICS. The laminar natural convection flow case was examined for a uniform heat flux (UHF) heating mode while the turbulent flow case was examined considering both UHF and uniform wall temperature (UWT) heating modes. Small and large scale channels were constructed to perform laminar and turbulent flow experiments respectively. The channels were formed by a heated wall, an opposing unheated perspex or glass wall and side walls. Velocity profile and time history data along the channel and temperature profiles at channel exit were recorded for the laminar flow case. In the turbulent flow case of UWT heating mode mean and turbulent velocity data and mean temperature data at the channel exit were collected. For the UHF heating mode turbulent flow case, however, both mean and turbulent velocity and temperature data were recorded. The main objective of the experiments was to obtain data by which the numerical analysis could be supported since not enough experimental data is available, especially for the turbulent flow case. The numerical analysis of the laminar flow situation was performed with the standard features of PHOENICS. The turbulent flow case was examined by building into PHOENICS the codes for four different Low Reynolds Number k-Ɛ turbulence models. The grid pattern was optimised for a test case and employed for final computations. Due to the lack of experimental data regarding the location of transition to turbulent flow, computations were done by introducing a level of turbulence at the inlet and solving the governing equations for turbulent flow throughout the channel. The results of measurements justified this approach. The results of numerical and experimental analysis of laminar flow showed good agreement confirming that the numerical method was capable of predicting the flow with good accuracy. Turbulent flow experiments exhibited the characteristics of a developing turbulent channel flow. Low amplitude, high frequency velocity fluctuations were observed close to the channel inlet with higher amplitudes downstream and almost similar fluctuation patterns in the uppermost region of the channel suggesting fully developed turbulence. The temperature data indicated intermittent bursts of high frequency temperature fluctuations near the inlet and continuous high frequency temperature fluctuations of increasing, amplitude downstream. Numerical results of the turbulent flow case have produced good agreement with experiments. The solutions were most sensitive to the level of turbulence introduced at the channel inlet. Reasonable grid independent solutions were obtained for grids greater than 60x60 for most of the turbulence models considered. Velocity and temperature profiles obtained from experiments and numerical analysis are presented for both flow cases. Typical time histories of velocity and temperature at different channel heights and cross-stream locations are presented. From the numerical and experimental results correlations were produced for Nusselt number, and Reynolds number as functions of Rayleigh number, for the UWT heating mode of turbulent flow.

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The work presented within this dissertation focusses on the development of affinite element method (FEM) model for the microwave absorption and heat transfer within a microwave combination washer dryer (MCWD). FEM will be used to aid in the implementation of more advanced fluid dynamics such as laminar or turbulent flow, that may be present within the system. The intended use of the model is to aid a South African based company in the development of a control system for the MCWD. The model development presented focusses on the washing cycle of the MCWD and will therefore not take into account the drying cycle of the system. The target of the microwave heating within the model will be distilled water as the dielectric constant of water is a know quantity. Various literature sources on microwave absorption and heat transfer models can be found, but none specific to the topic of the combination washer dryer. By reviewing literature from various sources, the finite element method was selected as the modelling technique and the COMSOL® software package was selected as the tool for developing the model. A model for the MCWD will be developed within the COMSOL® environment which in turn implements FEM as a technique to solve the model. The model development is broken into nine stages. Stage one start by modelling the heat transfer within the washing drum. Each consecutive stage expands the model by adding features or model domains. Model verification takes place in parallel to the development by verifying each stage before moving to the next stage. The stage eight and nine models, which represent a full three dimensional model of the system, are selected to be validated as the final models. Stage eight models the system without an enclosure and makes use of convective cooling boundary conditions on the boundary of the air enclosed within the system enclosure. Stage stage nine models the system with the aluminium enclosure of the system and also implements convective cooling boundary conditions on the outer boundary of the aluminium. The boundary between the enclosed air and aluminium enclosure is implemented as a normal convective heat transfer boundary between a gas and solid. Data capturing is done using the dSpace® platform. Sensors to log the microwave power and system temperature are selected and optimal placement of the sensors is evaluated. The capturing platform is interfaced to the sensors by an in-house developed signal conditioning board. Model validation is completed by comparing the response of the model to the practical system. Numerous simulations are completed to select the optimal configuration of the model that provides the optimal response. The stage eight model was found to be more accurate then the stage nine model with respect to the difference between the simulated and expected response over the whole domain of the transient temperature response. A further method implemented to easily compare the results of various simulations is by comparing the average absolute temperature of the response over the whole domain of the transient response. The average absolute temperature is calculated by taking absolute difference between the expected results and the model response at each time step within the response domain and then to average the absolute difference. This enables the comparison of two responses using two values. Needles to say this method should not be used alone and should be used in conjunction with a comparison over the full response domain. Use of the average absolute temperature difference is aimed at filtering the results from a selection of results which warrants a more in depth investigation. Using a comparison of the average absolute temperature difference of the target in the 500 W model, it was found that their respective values are 2:92 °C and 11:36 °C. The stage eight model computation time was far less than the stage nine model and is therefore recommended for further development. The final conclusion was made that the stage eight model represents the system fairly accurately at this stage and warrants further development by expanding the model to account for the drying cycle of the MCWD. The term fairy accurate is used to describe the results as further improvement of the model is definitely possible with regards to the accuracy of the transient response of the system. Further improvement of the model response may be possible by implementing a smaller mesh size or launching an in depth study on the effect of the various material thermal properties on the response of the system during various stages. For instance below a certain temperature the response closely represents the expected response and above that temperature the response various greatly from the expected response. Future work on the model include, to change the target from distilled water to an actual representation of the textiles intended to be washed within the MCWD. This will require a study into how the various parameters such as the density and dielectric constant, of the heterogeneous mixtures of textiles and water, can be combined for use into the model. As a next step in the expansion of the model, the model can be configured to account for the drying cycle of the system which will require the model to account for the phase changes that the water will undergo. / Thesis (MIng (Computer and Electronic Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.