Numerical simulation of turbulent flow and forced heat transfer of water/CuO nanofluid inside a horizontal dimpled fin

In the current study, turbulent flow and heat transfer in a three-dimensional channel is simulated numerically. The main purpose of this study is investigating the effect of using dimpled fin and CuO nanoparticles on the heat transfer enhancement and the improvement in cooling performance in a channel under the heat flux (100 kW m−2). Pure water flow is simulated at Reynolds numbers of 5000, 10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 with nanoparticles volume fractions 2 and 4%, and the effect of dimpled fins is investigated. To ensure the accuracy of the numerical solving procedure, the obtained results are compared with other experimental results and acceptable coincidence is observed. The results show that dimpled fins cause the improvement in heat transfer and using nanoparticles inside a dimpled fin causes better cooling performance than using pure water flow in a smooth channel. According to the obtained results at lower Reynolds numbers, the dimpled fin has more efficient performance in heat transfer enhancement than higher Reynolds numbers. Hence, using dimpled fin at lower Reynolds numbers flow is recommended.