Laminar natural convection of non-Newtonian power-law fluids between concentric circular cylinders

The two-dimensional steady-state natural convection of power-law fluids is studied numerically between two concentric horizontal cylinders with different constant temperatures. The governing equations are discretized using finite volume technique based on second order upwind and are solved using the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International communications in heat and mass transfer 2013-04, Vol.43, p.112-121
Main Authors: Matin, Meisam Habibi, Khan, Waqar Ahmed
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational fluid dynamics
Concentric cylinders
Convection and heat transfer
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid dynamics
Fluid flow
Fluids
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Natural convection
Newtonian fluids
Non-Newtonian
Non-newtonian fluid flows
Nusselt number
Physics
Power-law model
Pseudoplasticity
Turbulent flows, convection, and heat transfer
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Summary:The two-dimensional steady-state natural convection of power-law fluids is studied numerically between two concentric horizontal cylinders with different constant temperatures. The governing equations are discretized using finite volume technique based on second order upwind and are solved using the SIMPLE algorithm. The effects of Rayleigh number (103≤Ra≤105) and Prandtl number (10≤Pr≤103) on the dimensionless velocity and temperature are investigated for both pseudoplastic and dilatant fluids. Also the mean Nusselt number for various values of governing parameters is obtained and discussed. The results indicate that with increasing the power-law index from 0.6 to 1.4, the mean Nusselt number decreases. In the best case among the range of parameters considered here the heat transfer rate for pseudo-plastic fluid (n=0.6) is 170% higher than the Newtonian one and for dilatant fluid (n=1.4) the heat transfer rate is 43% lower than the Newtonian fluid. So the pseudoplastic and dilatant fluids are more efficient than Newtonian fluids for cooling and insulating purposes, respectively. It is shown that as the Rayleigh number increases the cooling effect of pseudoplastic fluid and the insulating effect of dilatant fluid become more pronounced.
ISSN:0735-1933
1879-0178
DOI:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2013.02.006