Forced convective heat transfer of non-Newtonian CMC-based CuO nanofluid in a tube

In the present study, the thermal and rheological behavior of power-law non-Newtonian CMC-based CuO nanofluid in a tube is studied using ANSYS FLUENT software. Constant heat flux of 6000 W/m2 is subjected to the tube walls and the viscosity of nanofluid is assumed to be a function of shear rate, and temperature simultaneously. Two velocity profiles are considered as an inlet boundary condition: fully developed velocity and uniform velocity. Volume fractions of 0%-4%, and the Reynolds numbers of 600-1500 are considered in the simulations. For both velocity profiles, temperature and shear rate have considerable influence on the viscosity. Local heat transfer coefficient along the tube increases with the volume fraction, however, volume fractions less than 1.5% has an effect on local heat transfer slightly. It is revealed that as the Reynolds number enhances, local heat transfer and the average Nusselt number decrease. In conflict with previous investigations, the present results show that average Nusselt number is reduced by increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles.