Significance of TiO2- water nanofluid, buoyant strength and ohmic heating in the enhancement of microchannel efficiency

Abstract

The present study investigates the influence of buoyant strength on magnetohydrodynamic flow of Titanium dioxide (TiO2) water based nanoliquid in a vertical microchannel with convective boundary and velocity slip conditions. Additionally, exponentially dependent heat source, Joule heating and viscous dissipation are considered to explore the flow and heat transfer fields. The buoyant forces are used to enhance fluid mixing and heat transmission by carefully planning the microchannel shape and fluid characteristics. Therefore, the numerical study investigates the effect of entropy generation on channel efficiency and discusses interesting results on microchannel efficiency. To solve the nonlinear dimensionless differential equations, the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg fourth-fifth (RKF-45) order numerical approach in conjunction with shooting methodology is employed. The obtained parameters are examined and analyzed graphically with regards to their effects on flow, thermal, local entropy generation and Bejan number profiles. Results reveal that, the velocity profile shows a rising character with increasing Grashof and Brinkman numbers. On the other hand, when the volume fraction of nanoparticles drops, the temperature profile shows a declining trend. This finding suggests that nanoparticle concentration may be carefully controlled and manipulated to improve microchannel efficiency. Lowering the system's entropy generation improves the channel efficiency.

Keywords

• Microchannel
• Nanofluid
• Nonlinear thermal radiation
• Entropy generation
• Bejan number