Effect of Al2O3-water nanofluid on heat transfer and pressure drop in a three-dimensional microchannel

The fluid flow and heat transfer in a three-dimensional microchannel filled with Al2O3- water nanofluid is numerically investigated. The hybrid scheme is used to discretize the convection terms and SIMPLER algorithm is adopted to couple the velocity and pressure field in the momentum equations. The thermal and flow fields were analyzed using different volume fractions of nanoparticles and different Reynolds numbers. The temperature fields, the average Nusselt number on the bottom surface, the thermal resistance and the pressure drop were obtained from the simulations. Results indicated enhanced performance with the usage of nanofluids, and slight penalty in pressure drop. The increase in Reynolds number caused increase in the heat transfer rate as well as pressure drop and decrease in the thermal resistance.