Flow and heat transfer of nanofluids in a cylindrical permeable wavy channel embedded in porous medium using Buongiorno’s model

Abstract

This investigation deals with the flow of Al2O3–water nanofluid in a wavy porous channel embedded in porous rocks. Fluid exchange takes place uniformly between porous rocks and the wavy channel. In this analysis, cylindrical and parallel plate wavy porous channels are considered. Consequences of Brownian motion and thermophoresis on the flow inside a wavy porous channel are elucidated. The modeled equations are made dimensionless by using dimensionless quantities. Impacts of flow parameters on the velocity, temperature, Nusselt number and friction factor are depicted through graphs. The numerical results with respect to parallel plate wavy porous channel are validated by comparing with the published results. The effectiveness of the cylindrical wavy porous channel as a heat transfer enhancement device in comparison to the parallel plate wavy porous channel is confirmed in this study. Designing devices at microlevels and understanding the heat transfer enhancement mechanism in wavy channels using the nanoparticle addition are the major outcomes from the results of this numerical investigation. The heat and mass transfer rate enhancements in the wavy porous channels are due to the higher Brownian motion in the boundary layer region and accelerated thermophoresis through thermal and concentration boundary layer thicknesses.