Convective Heat Transfer in a Channel in the Presence of Solid Particles

In this paper, the effect of cylindrical solid particles suspended in liquid on the rate of heat transfer in a channel is studied. The computational method is based on the lattice-Boltzmann method for the fluid flow and the energy equation. The effects of Reynolds number, particle-to-channel size ratio, location of the particle, and the eccentricity of the particle on heat transfer from the channel walls are considered. The effect of moving particles is also considered on the heat transfer enhancement by simulating several suspended particles moving with the fluid. This latter condition represents a case with solid particles suspended in the cooling medium such as in micro/nanofluids. The results provide insight in the mechanism by which suspended particles can effectively change the rate of heat transfer in a channel. The local and average wall Nusselt numbers are presented for these conditions.