Thermodynamic optimisation of rectangular and elliptical microchannels with nanofluids Online publication date: Mon, 12-Mar-2018
by Bouthayna Khlifi; Brahim Kalech; Mourad Bouterra; Afif El Cafsi
International Journal of Exergy (IJEX), Vol. 25, No. 3, 2018
Abstract: The thermodynamic optimisation of laminar flow in rectangular and elliptical microchannels subjected to low or high heat flux is analytically studied. Two mathematical models are developed, by incorporating the aspect ratio term, to evaluate entropy generation numbers. Two relations for calculating the conductivity and the viscosity of CuO-water nanofluids, based on experimental data from literature, are proposed. An entropy generation analysis is proposed to optimise the geometry of the microchannel and the working fluid for each heat flux condition. It has been revealed that at low heat flux, using water in microchannels with aspect ratio ε = 1 is more efficient. However, at high heat flux, it is more advisable to use microchannels with the smallest possible aspect ratio containing CuO-water nanofluids with higher conductivity and higher nanoparticles concentration. For the two cases, the rectangular microchannel reaches the minimum value of total entropy generation number compared to the elliptical microchannel.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Exergy (IJEX):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook