Mechanics of Smart Structures

Mechanics of Smart Structures

Numerical Simulation of Turbulent CuO-Water Nanofluid Flow in a Tube Using the Discrete Phase Model and ‎Evaluation of Turbulence Models Performance

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Sajjad Eslami
Mahdi Mohseni
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Qom University of Technology, Qom, Iran
10.30511/jmms.2025.2047594.1012
Abstract
Nanofluids significantly improve the efficiency of heat transfer-based systems such as cooling systems and heat exchangers due to their unique properties such as increased thermal conductivity and improved fluid properties. Turbulent flow also has significant effects on heat transfer and friction due to its characteristics. In this study, the turbulent flow of water-copper oxide nanofluid in a horizontal tube under constant heat flux was numerically simulated. To model the turbulent flow, several two-equation turbulence models and a Reynolds stress model available in Fluent software were used to investigate their performance. The two-phase flow of nanofluids was also solved using a discrete phase model. Comparison with experimental data for Nusselt number and friction coefficient shows that the RSM model has the best performance with a maximum error of about 10 percent and the standard k-ε model has the highest deviation with an error of about 32 percent.
Keywords
Nanofluid
Turbulence Model
Discrete Phase Model
Numerical Simulation