Effects of Nanoparticle Migration on Water/Alumina Nanofluid Flow Inside a Horizontal Annulus with a Moving Core

The present study is a theoretical investigation of the laminar flow and convective heat transfer of water/alumina nanofluid inside a horizontal annulus with a streamwise moving inner cylinder. A modified, two-component, four-equation, nonhomogeneous equilibrium model is employed for the alumina/water nanofluid, which fully accounts for the effect of the nanoparticle volume fraction distribution. To determine the effects of thermal boundary conditions on the migration of the nanoparticles, two cases are considered: constant heat flux at the outer wall with an adiabatic inner wall (Case A) and constant heat flux at the inner wall with an adiabatic outer wall (Case B). The numerical results indicate that the thermal boundary conditions at the pipe walls significantly affect the nanoparticle distribution, particularly in cases where the ratio of Brownian motion to thermophoretic diffusivities is small. Moreover, increasing the velocity of the moving inner cylinder reduces the heat transfer rate for Case A. Conversely, in Case B, the movement of the inner cylinder enhances the heat transfer rate, and anomalous heat transfer enhancement occurs when the thermophoretic force is dominant (in larger nanoparticles).