International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Numerical investigations of flow and heat transfer enhancement in a corrugated

channel using nanofluid ☆
M.A. Ahmed, N.H. Shuaib ⁎, M.Z. Yusoff, A.H. Al-Falahi
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43009 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 29 August 2011 In this paper, heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of copper–water nanofluid flow through isother-
mally heated corrugated channel are numerically studied. A numerical simulation is carried out by solving
Keywords: the governing continuity, momentum and energy equations for laminar flow in curvilinear coordinates
Nanofluid using the Finite Difference (FD) approach. The investigation covers Reynolds number and nanoparticle vol-
Corrugated channel ume fraction in the ranges of 100–1000 and 0–0.05 respectively. The effects of using the nanofluid on the
Laminar heat transfer
heat transfer and pressure drop inside the channel are investigated. It is found that the heat transfer enhance-
Finite difference method
ment increases with increase in the volume fraction of the nanoparticle and Reynolds number, while there is
slight increase in pressure drop. Comparisons of the present results with those available in literature are pre-
sented and discussed.
© 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, research on the methods for heat transfer en-
hancement in heat exchangers has received great attention in order
to cater for the growing needs of higher efficiencies in these devices.
Corrugated surface geometry is one of the many suitable techniques
to enhance the heat transfer in heat exchangers. When fluid flows
in a corrugated channel, the flow becomes disturbed due to growing
recirculation regions near the corrugated wall, which enhances the
mixing of fluid as well as heat transfer. On the coolant side, the use
of nanofluids, a liquid in which nanoparticles are added to a base
fluid, can also enhance the heat transfer due to the improved thermal
conductivity of the fluid.
Many researchers have investigated flow and heat transfer of con-
ventional fluid through corrugated channel numerically and experi-
mentally. Wang and Chen [1] studied numerically the forced
convection in a channel with a wavy wall. The spine alternating direc-
tion implicit method was applied to determine the flow and heat
transfer characteristic. They found that the heat transfer enhance-
ment was significant at larger amplitude wavelength ratio, especially
at higher Reynolds numbers. Sawyers et al. [2] combined the analyti-
cal and the numerical techniques to study the effect of three-
dimensional hydrodynamics on the enhancement of heat transfer in
corrugated channel. They observed that in three-dimensional case, a
small mean flow in the transverse direction leads to increase in the
heat transfer, while there is decrease in heat transfer as the transverse
☆ Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz.
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hafeez@uniten.edu.my (N.H. Shuaib).
flow becomes stronger. Fabbri [3] studied the convective heat transfer
in a channel composed of smooth and corrugated walls under laminar
flow conditions. The velocity and temperature distributions were de-
termined using the finite element method. It was found that the rela-
tive improvements in heat transfer of the optimum corrugated profile
increase with the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. Islamoglu and Par-
maksizoglu [4] experimentally studied the effect of channel height on
the enhanced heat transfer characteristics for air flowing in a corru-
gated heat exchanger channel. They found that the Nusselt number
and the friction factor increase but the pressure gradient decreases
with the increase in channel height. Islamoglu and Kurt [5] employed
an artificial neural network formulation to analyze the heat transfer
in corrugated channels. Results indicated that the artificial neural net-
work model could be trained to provide satisfactory estimations of
Nusselt numbers for air flow in corrugated channels.
Fabbri and Rossi [6] considered the effects of entrance region of
a channel composed by a corrugated profile and a flat wall on the
heat transfer. The governing equations were solved using the finite-
element method. They observed that the heat transfer was effectively
enhanced as the amplitude of the corrugated profile and the Reynolds
number increased. Metwally and Manglik [7] studied numerically
the laminar periodically developed forced convection in sinusoidal
corrugated-plate channels. Results showed that the mixing produced
by these self-sustained transverse vortices significantly enhances the
heat transfer depending upon the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers
as well as the channel corrugation aspect ratios. The enhancement
was found to come with a relatively small friction factor penalty.
Mohamed et al. [8] numerically studied the effects of the entrance re-
gion of a symmetric wavy-channel on the heat transfer and flow field.
It was found that the shear stress and the Nusselt number increase

0735-1933/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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 M.A. Ahmed et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375 1369

heat sink with rectangular cross-section. The governing equations

Nomenclature
were solved using finite volume method. It was found that the heat
transfer performance of the wavy microchannels is better than the
Cf skin-friction coefficient
straight microchannels with the same cross-section. The pressure
Cp specific heat, J/Kg k
drop penalty of the wavy microchannels, however, is much smaller
Dh hydraulic diameter, mm (Dh = Hmin + Hmax)
than the heat transfer enhancement.
f friction factor
The fluid dynamics and heat transfer analysis of three dimensional
h heat transfer coefficients, (W/m 2.°C)
microchannel flow with microstructures were numerically studied by
H height of channel, mm
Hong et al. [13] using the Monte Carlo method. The 3-D microchannel
J Jacobian of transformation
flows were simulated with the cross-section aspect ratio ranging be-
K thermal conductivity, W/m. °C
tween 1 and 5. The comparison between 3-D cases and 2-D cases
Nu Nusselt number
showed that when the aspect ratio is less than 3, significant effects
P pressure, Pa
on the heat transfer and flow properties were observed. When the as-
Pr Prandtl number
pect ratio increases, the flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics
ΔP dimensionless pressure drop
tend to approach to those of 2-D results. The computations showed
Re Reynolds number
that the cooling and heating effects of the microstructure temperature
t time, s
on flow properties were enhanced with decreasing Knudsen number.
T temperature, °C
Sun and Jaluria [14] carried out a numerical study on the time-
u,v velocities components, m/s
dependents of pressure-driven nitrogen flow in long microchannels
U, V dimensionless velocity component
under uniform wall heat flux input. Variable properties, rarefaction,
x, y 2D Cartesian coordinates, m
velocity slip, thermal creep and temperature jump, compressibility,
X, Y dimensionless Cartesian coordinates
and viscous dissipation effects were taken into account and the result-
ing thermal field and fluid dynamics were determined. Bigham et al.
[15] investigated on the combined effects of rarefaction, creeping
Greek symbols
flow, and viscous dissipation on the developing fluid flow and heat
ζ, η body-fitted coordinates
transfer through a constricted microchannel with constant wall tem-
α thermal diffusivity, m 2/s
perature. The governing equations in the presence of slip velocity
α1, β1 transforming coefficients
and temperature jump at the solid walls were discretized by a finite
β thermal expansion coefficient, k −1
volume scheme and solved using the SIMPLE algorithm in curvilinear
λ pitch (axial length of cycle), mm
coordinate. It was found that involving the effect of viscous dissipation
λ1, σ1, γ1 transforming coefficients
considerably affects the thermal fluid pattern and also increases
ϕ volume fraction of particles, %
the Nusselt number. It was also found that the Knudsen number had
μ dynamic viscosity, Ns/m 2
a declining effect on both the skin friction coefficient and Nusselt
ρ density, kg/m 3
number.
τ dimensionless time
Turgay and Yazicioglu [16] studied numerically the effect of trian-
ψ stream function, m 2/s
gular roughness on laminar convective heat transfer in two-
Ψ dimensionless stream function
dimensional parallel plate microchannels with constant wall temper-
Ω vorticity, 1/s
ature. In their study, the slip velocity and temperature jump at wall
ω dimensionless vorticity
boundaries were considered to have a rarefaction effect. The results
θ dimensionless temperature
showed that increasing surface roughness reduces heat transfer in
continuum while an increase in the Nusselt number with increasing
roughness height was observed in slip flow regime. Zhang and Che
Subscripts [17] numerically studied the effect of corrugation profile for cross-
e end point of corrugated wall corrugated plates on heat and flow characteristics. Velocity and ther-
eff effective mal fields for air flowing in cross-corrugated plates with sinusoidal,
f base fluid isosceles triangular, trapezoidal, rectangular, and elliptic corrugations
in inlet were studied and analyzed. It was found that the corrugation profile
l average value had significant effects on the thermal–hydraulic performance of cor-
nf nanofluid rugated plates. Nusselt number and friction factor were found to be
min minimum around 1–4 times higher for the trapezoidal channel than for the el-
max maximum liptic channel. Apart from various works on the corrugated channels
p particles to enhance heat transfer process, there are many recent numerical
s starting point of corrugated wall and experimental studies on the use of nanofluids to enhance heat
w wall transfer at the macro and micro-scales. Xuan and Li [18] investigated
x local value experimentally thermal conductivity of copper–water nanofluid.
The investigation revealed that the nanofluids have higher thermal
conductivities than those of conventional pure fluids. Xuan and Li
with the Reynolds number and had the highest magnitude in the en- [19] experimentally investigated the convective heat transfer feature
trance region. and flow performance of copper–water nanofluid in a tube. It was
Naphon [9–11] numerically and experimentally studied heat found that the suspended nanoparticles remarkably improve heat
transfer and pressure drop of air flow in the corrugated channels. transfer performance of the base fluid. Compared to water at the
For the numerical part, a commercial CFD program was used to same value of Reynolds number, the Nusselt number in the nanofluid
solve the problem. The results proved that the corrugated surface case was increased by more than 39% for nanofluid containing 2.0%
had a significant effect on the enhancement of heat transfer and pres- volume fraction of copper nanoparticles. He et al. [20] numerically
sure drop. Mohammed et al. [12] numerically investigated laminar studied convective heat transfer of TiO2 nanofluids flowing through
water flow and heat transfer characteristics in wavy microchannel a straight tube under the laminar flow conditions. The results showed
1370 M.A. Ahmed et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375

significant enhancement of heat transfer of nanofluids particularly in
the entrance region.
Kolade et al. [21] experimentally measured the effective thermal
conductivity of nanofluids developing convective boundary layer con-
ditions in tubes. It was found that the increase in effective thermal
conductivity for water-Al2O3 nanofluids is 6% when using 2% Al2O3.
For a suspension of multiwall carbon nanotubes in silicone oil, the
thermal conductivity is increased by 10% over that of the base fluid
for a particle concentration of 0.2%. Mohammed et al. [22] numerical-
ly investigated the effects of using various types of nanofluids and the
Reynolds numbers on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in a
square shaped microchannel heat exchanger. The results showed that
nanofluids can enhance the thermal properties and performance of
the heat exchanger while having a slight increase in pressure drop.
Abu-Nada [23] numerically investigated nanofluids flow over a back-
ward facing step using the finite volume method. Different types of
nanoparticles with different volume fractions of nanoparticles were
used. Results showed that outside the recirculation zones, nanoparti-
cles having high thermal conductivity (such as Ag or Cu) had more
enhancements on the Nusselt number, while within recirculation
zones, nanoparticles having low thermal conductivity (such as TiO2)
had better enhancement on heat transfer.
Zhang et al. [24] numerically investigated the effects of Brownian
and thermophoretic diffusions on non-equilibrium heat conduction
in a nanofluid layer with periodic heat flux on one side and specified
temperature on the other side. The nanofluid used was obtained by
dispersing copper nanoparticles into ethylene glycol. The results
showed that the Brownian and thermophoretic diffusions only affect
the nanoparticle temperature, but their effect on the heat transfer en-
hancement was negligible. Ghasemi and Aminossadati [25] consid-
ered the problem of natural convection heat transfer in an inclined
enclosure filled with a water–CuO nanofluid. The effects of Rayleigh
number, inclination angle, and solid volume fraction on the heat
transfer characteristics were presented and discussed. The results
showed that adding nanoparticles into pure water improves its heat
transfer performance. Also, it was found that the heat transfer rate
was maximized at a specific inclination angle depending on Rayleigh
number and solid volume fraction. Santra et al. [26] numerically stud-
ied the heat transfer behavior of copper–water nanofluid in a two
dimensional horizontal duct. The governing equations for laminar
flow were discretized using finite volume approach and solved iter-
atively using the SIMPLER algorithm. It was observed that the rate
of heat transfer increases with the increase in the flow rate and
nanoparticle volume fraction. Kalteh et al. [27] numerically investi-
gated the laminar forced convection heat transfer of copper–water
nanofluid inside an isothermally heated microchannel and found
that the heat transfer enhancement increases with the increase in
Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume concentration, while
the pressure drop increases only slightly. Akbarinia and Laur [28]
numerically investigated the effect of nanoparticle on laminar
mixed convection heat transfer in a circular curved tube with a
nanofluid consisting of water and 1 volume% Al2O3. It was found
that increasing the diameter of the nanoparticle decreases the Nus-
selt number and secondary flow, while the axial velocity augments.
Raisi et al. [29] investigated on the laminar forced convection of
Cu-water nanofluid in a partially heated microchannel. The effects
of both slip and no-slip boundary conditions on the flow field and
heat transfer were considered in their study. It was observed that
the solid volume fraction as well as slip velocity coefficient has
been great effects on heat transfer rate especially at high Reynolds
numbers. Wongcharee and Eiamsa-ard [30] experimentally investi-
Reynolds number and nanofluid concentration. In addition, the em-
pirical correlations for heat transfer coefficient, friction factor and
thermal performance factor were developed and reported.
Based on the above review, it is noted that all of the previous studies
on corrugated channel in literature used conventional fluid as working
fluid. In the present paper, the effects of nanofluid flow on heat transfer
and pressure drop in a corrugated channel are numerically studied. The
numerical simulations are carried out by solving the governing equa-
tions in a stream function–vorticity formulation using a finite difference
approach. The investigation covers Reynolds number and nanoparticle
volume fraction in the ranges of 100–1000 and 0–0.05 respectively.
The effects of using nanofluid on the heat transfer and pressure drop in-
side the channel are investigated and analyzed.
2. Mathematical formulation
2.1. Problem description
The basic geometry of the present problem is shown in Fig. 1. It
consists of a two symmetric plates channel with minimum height
(Hmin) of 10 mm and the maximum height (Hmax) of 16 mm. The
width of the channel is very large compared with the channel height
and thus the geometry is assumed as two-dimensional. The wall of
channel is composed of a flat wall and a corrugated wall. There are
six cycles (pitch) along the corrugated wall. The axial length of pitch
(λ) is 20 mm and the length of each adiabatic flat wall section before
and after the corrugated section is 40 mm. The upper and lower corru-
gated walls are isothermally heated, while the flat walls are thermally
insulated. The flow is assumed Newtonian, laminar, two-dimensional
and incompressible. In addition, it is assumed that the cold mixture of
base fluid (water) and the solid spherical nanoparticles (copper) is in
thermal equilibrium and it flow at the same velocity as a homogenous
mixture. To save computational time, only the bottom half of the
channel is used as the computational domain in numerical solution
and a symmetry boundary condition is applied at the center of the
channel.
2.2. Governing equations and boundary conditions
The non-dimensional governing equations for 2D, steady, laminar
incompressible flow of a homogenous mixture of nanoparticles and
base fluid are [26]:
Continuity:
∂U ∂V
þ ¼0 ð1Þ
∂X ∂Y
X-Momentum:
" #
∂U ∂U ∂U ∂P 1 ρf 1 ∂2 U ∂2 U
þU þV ¼− þ þ ð2Þ
∂τ ∂X ∂Y ∂X Re ρnf ð1−ϕÞ2:5 ∂X 2 ∂Y 2
Xe
Xs
y Hmax
flow x
Hmin

gated the heat transfer, friction and thermal performance character-

istics of CuO–water nanofluid in a circular tube equipped with
flat wall flat wall
modified twisted tape with alternate axis. The concentration of Corrugated wall
nanofluid was varied while the twisted ratio was kept constant.
They observed that the Nusselt number increases with increasing Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the physical model.
 M.A. Ahmed et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375 1371

 
Y-Momentum: ∂ω 1 ∂Ψ ∂ω ∂Ψ ∂ω
þ − þ
" # ∂τ J ∂ζ ∂η ∂η ∂ζ
∂V ∂V ∂V ∂P 1 ρf 1 ∂2 V ∂2 V " #
þU þV ¼− þ þ ð3Þ
∂τ ∂X ∂Y ∂Y Re ρnf ð1−ϕÞ2:5 ∂X 2 ∂Y 2 1 ρf 1 ∂Ψ ∂Ψ ∂2 Ψ ∂2 Ψ ∂2 Ψ
¼ λ 1 þ σ1 þ α1 −2β1 þ γ 1
J 2 Re ρnf ð1−ϕÞ2:5 ∂ζ ∂η ∂ζ2 ∂ζ∂η ∂η2
Energy: ð11Þ
" #  
∂θ ∂θ ∂θ 1 knf ðρCpÞf ∂2 θ ∂2 θ ∂θ 1 ∂Ψ ∂θ ∂Ψ ∂θ
þU þV ¼ þ : ð4Þ þ − þ
∂τ ∂X ∂Y RePr kf ðρCpÞnf ∂X 2 ∂Y 2 ∂τ J ∂ζ ∂η ∂η ∂ζ
" #
1 knf ðρCpÞf
2 2 2
Using the vorticity–stream function method, the continuity and ∂θ ∂θ ∂ θ ∂ θ ∂ θ
¼ 2 λ1 þ σ1 þ α1 2 − 2β1 þ γ1 2 :
the two momentum equations are transformed into the following J RePr kf ðρCpÞnf ∂ζ ∂η ∂ζ ∂ζ∂η ∂η
equations [1,31]: ð12Þ

∂2 Ψ ∂2 Ψ After solving the governing equations, the flow and temperature

þ ¼ −ω ð5Þ
∂X 2 ∂Y 2 fields are obtained which are then used to calculate the Nusselt num-
" # ber as follows. The local and the average Nusselt number for the cor-
∂ω ∂Ψ ∂ω ∂Ψ ∂ω 1 ρf 1 ∂2 ω ∂2 ω rugated wall are defined as [26]:
þ − ¼ þ ð6Þ
∂τ ∂Y ∂X ∂X ∂Y Re ρnf ð1−ϕÞ2:5 ∂X 2 ∂Y 2 
hx Dh knf ∂θ 
Nux ¼ ¼−  ; ð13Þ
where Knf kf ∂Y 
x;0

∂V ∂U ∂Ψ ∂Ψ x
ω¼ − ;U ¼ V ¼− ð7Þ 1 e

∂X ∂Y ∂Y ∂X Nul ¼ ∫ Nux dx: ð14Þ

xe −xs x
s
and the non-dimensional parameter is defined as:
The local skin friction coefficient at the corrugated wall can be cal-
x y u v ΩDh φ
X¼ ; Y¼ ; U¼ ; V¼ ; ω¼ ; Ψ¼ ; ð8aÞ culated as:
Dh Dh uin uin uin uin Dh


μnf ρf 1 ∂U  μnf ρf 1 
T−Tin p tu ρf uin Dh μ f CPf Cfl ¼ 2  ¼ −2 ω : ð15Þ
θ¼ ; P¼ ; τ ¼ in ; Re ¼ ; Pr ¼ : ð8bÞ μ f ρnf Re ∂Y  μ f ρnf Re x;0
Tw −Tin ρf u2in Dh μf Kf x;0

The corresponding boundary conditions that are used for compu- The average value of friction coefficient for bottom corrugated
tations are given by: channel is:

i) At the inlet section: xe

1
Cfl ¼ ∫ Cfx dx: ð16Þ
θ ¼ ω ¼ 0; Ψ ¼ yuin ð9aÞ xe −xs x
s

ii) Along lower wall: Since the friction factor is defined as:

∂U f ¼ 4Cfl ; ð17Þ
Ψ ¼ 0; ω ¼ − ð9bÞ
∂Y
the pressure drop for flow in the corrugated channel is computed as:
θ ¼ 1; for corrugated walls ð9cÞ
2
ðXe −Xs Þ ρnf uin
∂θ ΔΡ ¼ f : ð18Þ
¼ 0; for flat walls ð9dÞ Dh 2
∂Y

iii) Along the symmetric axis of the channel (y = Hmin/2): 2.3. Thermophysical properties of nanofluid

∂θ
Ψ ¼ yuin ; ω ¼ 0; ¼0 ð9eÞ The thermophysical properties of the nanofluid used in present
∂Y
study are the ones used by Santra et al. [26], where:
Density:
iv) At the outlet section:
ρnf ¼ ð1−ϕÞρf þ ϕρp ð19Þ
∂Ψ ∂θ ∂ω
¼ 0; ¼ 0; ¼ 0: ð9fÞ
∂X ∂X ∂X
Heat capacity:

Due to the curvilinear geometry of the boundary, the governing ðρCP Þnf ¼ ð1−ϕÞðρCP Þf þ ϕðρCP Þp ð20Þ
equations are transformed from Cartesian coordinate (x, y) to non-
orthogonal curvilinear coordinate (ζ, η) and written as [32]: Thermal conductivity:

∂Ψ ∂Ψ ∂2 Ψ ∂2 Ψ ∂2 Ψ 2 keff kp Ap Ap
λ1 þ σ1 þ α1 2 − 2β1 þ γ1 ¼ − ωJ ð10Þ ¼1þ þ ckp Pe ; ð21Þ
∂ζ ∂η ∂ζ ∂ζ∂η ∂η2 kf k f Af kf Af
1372 M.A. Ahmed et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375

10
where
Re=100 (present study)
9
Ap df ϕ Re=500 (present study)
¼ ; ð22Þ
Af dp ð1−ϕÞ Re=100 (Santra et al.[26])
8 Re=500 (Santra et al.[26])

Average Nusselt number

and 7

up dp
Pe ¼ ; ð23Þ 6
αf
5
where up is the Brownian motion velocity of the particles which is de-
fined as: 4

3
2k p T
up ¼ ; and ð24Þ
πμ f d2p 2

1
Dynamic viscosity:
0
μf 0 1 2 3 4 5
μnf ¼ : ð25Þ
ð1−ϕÞ2:5 Solid volume fraction (%)

The value of the constant c, which appears in Eq. (21), is 3.60 × 10 4 Fig. 2. Comparison of the average Nusselt number for present study with previous nu-
merical study (Santra et al. [26]) for different Reynolds number.
[26].

3. Numerical method
After transforming the governing equations in the Cartesian coor-
dinates into the non-orthogonal coordinates, the Eqs. (10), (11)
and (12) are discretized using finite difference (FD) approach. The
vorticity transport and energy equations are solved using the simple
explicit method based on the time marching technique [31,32]. In
the marching problems, the governing equations change with time
as well as position. So, the finite difference solution requires discreti-
zation in time in addition to discretization in space. The stream func-
tion equation is solved using relaxation method [32]. In brief, the
iterative solution procedure is started by evaluating the stream func-
tion. Then the vorticity transport and energy equations are solved
to determine the vorticity and temperature for the all computational
domain. Iteration was continued until the sum of absolute residual for
every parameter in all computational domain is less than or equal to
10 −5. A time step of 0.001 was used for all calculations.
4. Validation of numerical algorithm and grid independence study
To validate the numerical algorithm used in present study, the av-
erage Nusselt number for nanofluid flow through two parallel plates
has been calculated and compared with numerical study of Santra
the Reynolds number increases to Re = 200, the flow separation oc-
curs and size of recirculation regions increases. As noted, as the Reyn-
olds number increases further, the size of recirculation regions also
increases and flow become more disturbed. Looking at the tempera-
ture contours, it is found that the temperature gradient near the
wall is higher as Reynolds number increases due to the enhanced
mixing of the cold fluid in core with hot fluid near the corrugated
wall.
The streamline and isotherm contours for the flow of nanofluid
through the corrugated channel for ϕ = 0% (water), 1%, 3% and 5%
for Re = 800 are shown in Fig. 5. The streamlines show that, at the
same Reynolds number, there is a small increase in the size of the
recirculation zone near the wall with the increase in volume fraction,
which is due to the small effects of nanoparticles on the flow field.
With respect to the temperature contours, the temperature gradient
30
300x40
300x50
25 400x40
400x50
500x40
Average Nusslet number

500x50
et al. [26]; the results are in good agreement as shown in Fig. 2. In ad- 20
dition, the non-dimensional pressure drop for nanofluid flow in a
microchannel by Kalteh et al. [27] was also calculated and the results
are in good agreement. For the grid independence study, the average
15
Nusselt number and non-dimensional pressure drop for different
Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume fraction of 0% (water)
were calculated. As depicted in Fig. 3 the number of grid points in
10
the x- and y-directions of 400 and 40 respectively can be considered
grid-independent and is therefore used throughout the present study.

5. Results and discussion 5

Fig. 4 shows the streamlines and isotherm contours for fluid flow
in a corrugated channel for Reynolds number 100, 200, 500 and 0
200 400 600 800 1000
1000 at ϕ = 0%, i.e. water. The streamlines show that the Reynolds
Reynolds number
number has clear effect on the flow. At low Reynolds number, Re =
100, recirculation regions begin growing laterally along the corrugat- Fig. 3. Average Nusselt number vs. Reynolds number for different number of grid
ed wall cavities and the flow is undisturbed through the channel. As points at ϕ = 0%.
 M.A. Ahmed et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375 1373

9.5E-01
3.8E-01 7.3E-01
2.7E-01 5.4E-01
1.5E-01 4.5E-01
3.8E-02 2.7E-01
6.3E-04 3.0E-02
-3.4E-06

a a
3.8E-01 9.5E-01
2.7E-01 7.3E-01
5.4E-01
1.5E-01 4.5E-01
4.9E-02 2.7E-01
4.7E-03 3.0E-02
-3.4E-04

b b
9.5E-01
3.8E-01 7.3E-01
2.7E-01 5.4E-01
1.5E-01 4.5E-01
3.4E-02 2.7E-01
-5.8E-04 3.0E-02
-2.9E-03
c c
9.5E-01
3.8E-01 7.3E-01
2.7E-01 5.4E-01
1.5E-01 4.5E-01
3.2E-02 2.7E-01
-8.5E-04 3.0E-02
-5.0E-03

d d
Fig. 4. Streamlines (left) and isotherms (right) contours for different Reynolds number (a) Re = 100, (b) Re = 200, (c) Re = 500, and (d) Re = 1000, at ϕ = 0%.

3.8E-01
2.7E-01 9.5E-01
1.5E-01 7.3E-01
3.2E-02 5.4E-01
-8.5E-04 4.5E-01
2.7E-01
-5.0E-03 3.0E-02
a a
3.8E-01 9.5E-01
2.7E-01 7.3E-01
1.5E-01 5.4E-01
3.2E-02 4.5E-01
-8.5E-04 2.7E-01
-5.0E-03 3.0E-02

b b
3.8E-01 9.5E-01
2.7E-01 7.3E-01
1.5E-01 5.4E-01
3.2E-02 4.5E-01
-8.5E-04 2.7E-01
-5.0E-03 3.0E-02

c c
3.8E-01 9.5E-01
2.7E-01 7.3E-01
5.4E-01
1.5E-01 4.5E-01
3.2E-02 2.7E-01
-8.5E-04 3.0E-02
-5.0E-03

d d
Fig. 5. Streamlines (left) and isotherms (right) for different nanoparticle volume fraction (a) ϕ = 0%, (b) ϕ = 1%, (c) ϕ = 3%, and (d) ϕ = 5%, at Re = 800.

50
near the wall increases with increasing the volume fraction at the
0%
same Reynolds number, due to the improvement in thermal conduc- 3%
tivity of the fluid from the addition of the nanoparticles. 5%
Fig. 6 depicts the variation of local Nusselt number along the bottom 40
corrugated wall for different volume fraction values of ϕ = 0%, 3% and
Local Nusselt number

5% at Re = 500. The same trend is found for all values of the Reynolds
number tested in this study. It is found that the local Nusselt number
30
is higher in the converging section than in the diverging section along
the wall. This is because the former has higher velocity than the latter
and consequently the heat transfer rate is increased. When the volume
fraction of nanoparticles increases, the local Nusselt number along the
20
corrugated wall increases as expected. It is found that the highest
peak point of local Nusselt number appears at the first cycle. This is be-
cause of the nanofluid at inlet of the corrugated channel is cooler than
any section along the channel and hence the highest Nusselt number 10
occurs at the inlet of the corrugated channel.
Fig. 7 shows the non-dimensional pressure drop vs. Reynolds
number for different nanoparticles volume fraction values. It can be
seen that the pressure drop increases only slightly with increase in 0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16
volume fraction of nanoparticles for all Reynolds number. As men-
x
tioned above, the nanoparticles have small effect on the flow field.
The results are similar to those obtained by Kalteh et al. [27]. The Fig. 6. Variation of local Nusselt number along the lower corrugated wall with nanopar-
heat transfer enhancement as a percentage over the base fluid ticle volume fraction at Re = 500.
1374 M.A. Ahmed et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 1368–1375

1.5
6. Conclusion
1.25
0%
1 1% In this paper, heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop due to
2%
3% flow of copper–water nanofluid through isothermally-heated corru-
0.75
Non-dimensional pressured rop

4% gated are studied numerically for a range of Reynolds number of

5% 100–1000 and nanoparticle volume fraction varying from 0 to 0.05.
0.5 The governing equations based on the stream function–vorticity
method are solved numerically using the finite difference approach.
The effect of nanoparticle volume fraction on local Nusselt number
and pressure drop is presented for different Reynolds number. Results
0.25
show that, for a given Reynolds number, the heat transfer increases as
the volume fraction of nanoparticle increases. In addition, as the vol-
ume fraction increases, the pressure drop slightly increases for all
value of Reynolds number. For same value of volume fraction, the
heat transfer enhancement was found to depend on Reynolds num-
ber. For Re b 200, there is slight increase in the enhancement with
the increase in Reynolds number, while for Re N 200, there is slight de-
crease in heat transfer enhancement as Reynolds number increases.
For the cases tested, the highest enhancement in heat transfer was
200 400 600 800 1000 found at Reynolds number of 200 and nanoparticle volume fraction
Reynolds number of 5%, with an enhancement of around 43.9% over the base fluid.
The study shows that the use of nanofluid in corrugated channels
Fig. 7. Non-dimensional pressure drop vs. Reynolds for different nanoparticle volume can be proposed as a suitable method to achieve higher heat transfer
fractions.
performance, which can lead to design of more compact heat
exchangers.

(water) for different Reynolds number and different volume fraction
of nanoparticles has been presented in Fig. 8. It should be noted
that the enhancement in heat transfer increases with increasing in
volume fraction of nanoparticles at the same value of Reynolds num-
ber. Also, it can be seen that for the same value of the volume fraction,
the heat transfer enhancement increases slightly with Reynolds num-
ber for Re b 200, after which heat transfer enhancement is found to
decrease slightly as the Reynolds number increases. This is due to
the fact that , at low Reynolds number, the diffusion effects in the
nanofluid, which depend on the thermal conductivity of the fluid, is
higher than the convective effects. It is found that highest enhance-
ment in heat transfer is around 43.9% at Re = 200 and ϕ = 5%.
60
55
Average Nusselt number enhancement (%)
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to sincerely thank the Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE) of Malaysia for the provision of a grant with
code no. 20110106FRGS to support this work.
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