Comparison of 2D and 3D Modelling Applied to Single Phase Flow of Nanofluid through Corrugated Channels

Nanofluid flow through non-corrugated and corrugated channels is studied using a two-dimensional (2D) and three dimensions (3D) numerical simplification. Due to the high computational costs of a full 3D grid model, the 2D approach offer a more practical advantage. However, little information about its validity is available. The aim of this study is to explore to which extent 2D simulations can describe the flow within a 3D geometry, and to investigate how effective the commonly used 2D numerical simplification is in nanofluid flow through non-corrugated and corrugated channels. A case study has implemented with 2D and 3D mesh models to compare their results taking into consideration the analysis of heat transfer and pressure drop. A simulation has been carried out using Ansys fluent software to compare the results for different Reynolds Numbers ranges from 10000 to 30000 and different geometries non-corrugated, semicircle and rectangular channels. The results show that for non-corrugated channel there is a slight difference between 2D and 3D results for all Reynolds number ranges, while for both semicircle and rectangular corrugated channels, the difference becomes larger for high Reynold’s Number.