Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer Performances of Ionic Liquid and Ionanofluids with Temperature-Dependent Thermophysical Properties

Abstract

The heat transfer performances of ionic liquids [C4mpyrr][NTf2] and ionanofluids with Al2O3 nanoparticles under a laminar flow regime, and with constant heat flux on the tube wall is numerically modeled and analyzed for three values of initial/inlet temperature and for two Reynolds numbers. Heat transfer characteristics were considered by analyzing the temperature distribution along the upper wall, as well as by analyzing the Nusselt number and heat transfer coefficient. The results obtained numerically were validated using Shah’s equation for ionic liquid. Thermophysical properties were temperature-dependent, and obtained by curve-fitting the experimental values of the thermophysical properties. Furthermore, the same set of results was calculated for the ionic liquid and ionanofluids with constant thermophysical properties. It is concluded that the assumption that thermophysical properties are constant has a significant influence on the heat transfer performance parameters of both ionic liquid and ionanofluids, and therefore such assumptions should not be made in research.

Keywords

• ionanofluids
• computational fluid dynamics
• heat transfer
• Nusselt number
• temperature-dependent properties