Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2016) 131: 78
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2016-16078-6

Regular Article

Numerical study of forced convection flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid flowing inside a straight circular pipe filled with a saturated porous medium

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran
² Department of Engineering, Mahdishahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahdishahr, Iran
³ Department of Mathematics, Babes-Bolyai University, 400084, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

^* e-mail: popm.ioan@yahoo.co.uk

Received: 22 June 2015
Accepted: 7 February 2016
Published online: 4 April 2016

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of developing forced convection flow of a nanofluid in a constant-wall-temperature circular tube filled with a porous medium is considered. The flow is steady and Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation model is employed. The thermal-equilibrium model is assumed between nanofluid and solid phase. It is also assumed that nanoparticles are distributed non-uniformly inside the pipe, hence the particles volume fraction equation is also coupled with the governing equations. A numerical study has been performed using the Finite-Volume method to analyze heat transfer coefficient of Al₂O₃ -water nanofluid. The effects of nanoparticles volume fraction and porosity on fluid flow and heat transfer of nanofluids are studied. The results show that the Nusselt number is increased with increasing particles volume fraction. Moreover, the wall shear stresses are increased. Finally, the effect of porosity on particle volume fraction distribution is studied and discussed in detail. We are confident that the reported results are new and original.