Search results

It is well known that the mixed convection process is the combined effect of the presence of both the forced and the free convection processes. In several applications such as environmental chambers, IC engines, etc. the forced convection is brought in by multiple suction/injection (S/I) effect. Study of mixed convection in a vertical square fluid saturated porous cavity with multiple S/I effect greatly contributes to such an understanding. So far, not much research work has reported in this direction. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate such a mixed convection process in a fluid saturated vertical porous square cavity.

In this study, the authors numerically solved the couple partial differential equations governing the mixed convection process in a fluid saturated vertical square porous cavity by finite element method. The study is parametric in nature wherein the authors cover a large range of values for different parameters arising the mathematical model governing the problem under consideration.

The influence of multiple S/I effects on mixed convection is analyzed for a wide range of controlling parameters such as S/I flow velocities (a), S/I window size (D/H) and Rayleigh number (Ra). Both the flow and temperature fields are highly sensitive to magnitude of S/I velocity, S/I window slit size and “Ra”. While heat fluxes along the isothermal left vertical wall decrease with increasing S/I velocities they are formed to increase with increasing “(D/H)” and “Ra”. Nusselt numbers increase with increasing “Ra” and increasing size of S/I window slit size. Multi‐cellular circulation pattern and thermal boundary layers are seen to manifest in flow and temperature fields, respectively.

The study is based on 2D model, but the model is generic in nature; also it is fully numerical in nature. Due to lack of apt literature no experimental support is provided. The mathematical model used in the study is based on certain assumptions such as isotropic porous medium, fluid is viscous in nature and follows Newtonian laws and the porous structure is saturated with fluid, etc. Regarding future work, 3D modelling and simulation is in progress and attempts are also being made to collaborate with experimental groups on the problem under investigation.

The results from the work are relevant to the context of heat and fluid flow studies in IC engines, influence of mixed convection process on bacterial growth process in environmental chambers and cooling of electronic devices, etc.

The paper describes a mathematical model, especially the boundary treatment, for describing the influence of multiple S/I effects on mixed convection flow in a vertical square enclosure filled with a Darcian fluid saturated homogeneous porous medium. To understand the physics behind the mixed convection process in the proposed configuration, extensive numerical simulations have been carried out for the first time for different values of the important governing parameters arising from the model.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of three different flow channel cross sections on the performance of the fuel cell.

A comprehensive three-dimensional polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell model has been developed, and a set of conservation equations has been solved. The flow is assumed to be steady, fully developed, laminar and isothermal. The investigated cross sections are the commonly used square cross section, the increasingly used trapezoidal cross section and a novel hybrid configuration where the cross section is square at the inlet and trapezoidal at the outlet.

The results show that a slight gain is obtained when using the hybrid configuration and this is because of increased velocity, which improves the supply of the reactant gases to the catalyst layers (CLs) and removes heat and excess water more effectively compared to other configurations. Further, the reduction of the outlet height of the hybrid configuration leads to even better fuel cell performance and this is again because of increased velocity in the flow channel.

The data generated in this study will be highly valuable to engineers interested in studying the effect of fluid cross -sectional shape on fuel cell performance.

This study proposes a novel flow field with a variable cross section. This design can supply a higher amount of reactant gases to the CLs, dissipates heat and remove excess water more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of hydrogen humidity on the performance of air-breathing proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells.

An efficient mathematical model for air-breathing PEM fuel cells has been built in MATLAB. The sensitivity of the fuel cell performance to the heat transfer coefficient is investigated first. The effect of hydrogen humidity is also studied. In addition, under different hydrogen humidities, the most appropriate thickness of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) is investigated.

The heat transfer coefficient dictates the performance limiting mode of the air-breathing PEM fuel cell, the modelled air-breathing fuel cell is limited by the dry-out of the membrane at high current densities. The performance of the fuel cell is mainly influenced by the hydrogen humidity. Besides, an optimal cathode GDL and relatively thinner anode GDL are favoured to achieve a good performance of the fuel cell.

The current study improves the understanding of the effect of the hydrogen humidity in air-breathing fuel cells and this new model can be used to investigate different component properties in real designs.

The hydrogen relative humidity and the GDL thickness can be controlled to improve the performance of air-breathing fuel cells.

This paper aims to incorporate a numerical investigation of unsteady flow of nano-fluid near the boundary wall and heat transmission over a flat sheet in porous media under the assumption that sheet is continuously stretching. A comprehensive study is accomplished to probe the impacts of different physical parameters on heat transmission and fluid flow.

The problem is designed mathematically by using Navier–Stokes equations and corresponding equations are transmuted into non-dimensional form, which are reduced to local non-similarity equations. Implicit finite difference scheme is used to attain a non-similar solution for values of similarity variable ranging in [0,1]

The reduced Nusselt number is a decreasing function of each dimensionless number, while the reduced Sherwood number is an increasing function of each considered value of parameters Pr, Sc, Nb and Nt.

Motivated by the industrial, technological and scientific importance, the objective of this study is to discuss the unsteady flow generated by linear stretching of the surface in Nano-fluid in a porous medium. However, the investigation of unsteady boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a Nano-fluid past a stretching surface immersed in a porous medium has not been discussed yet. Furthermore, finite difference scheme is used to solve the problem, and authenticate results are achieved which are in good agreement with published work.

This paper aims to numerically investigate the impact of gas diffusion layer (GDL) anisotropic transport properties on the overall and local performance of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs).

A three-dimensional numerical model of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell with a single straight channel has been developed to investigate the sensitivity of the fuel cell performance to the GDL anisotropic transport properties – gas permeability, diffusivity, thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity. Realistic experimentally estimated GDL transport properties were incorporated into the developed PEFC model, and a parametric study was performed to show the effect of these properties on fuel cell performance and the distribution of the key variables of current density and oxygen concentration within the cathode GDL.

The results showed that the anisotropy of the GDL must be captured to avoid overestimation/underestimation of the performance of the modelled fuel cell. The results also showed that the fuel cell performance and the distributions of current density and oxygen mass fraction within the cathode GDL are highly sensitive to the through-plane electrical conductivity of the GDL and, to a lesser extent, the through-plane diffusivity, and the thermal conductivity of the GDL. The fuel cell performance is almost insensitive to the gas permeability of the GDL.

This study improves the understanding of the importance of the GDL anisotropy in the modelling of fuel cells and provides useful insights on improving the efficiency of the fuel cells.

Realistic experimentally estimated GDL transport properties have been incorporated into the PEFC model for the first time, allowing for more accurate prediction of the PEFC performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the bioconvection flow in a porous square cavity saturated with both oxytactic microorganism and nanofluids.

The impacts of the effective parameters such as Rayleigh number, bioconvection number, Peclet number and thermophoretic force, Brownan motion and Lewis number reduces the flow strength in the cavity on the flow strength, oxygen density distribution, motile isoconcentrations and heat transfer performance are investigated using a finite volume approach.

The results obtained showed that the average Nusselt number is increased with Peclet number, Lewis number, Brownian motion and thermophoretic force. Also, the average Sherwood number increased with Brownian motion and Peclet number and decreased with thermophoretic force. It is concluded that the flow strength is pronounced with Rayleigh number, bioconvection number, Peclet number and thermophoretic force. Brownan motion and Lewis number reduce the flow strength in the cavity.

There is no published study in the literature about sensitivity analysis of Brownian motion and thermophoresis force effects on the bioconvection heat transfer in a square cavity filled by both nanofluid and oxytactic microorganisms.

This bibliography is offered as a practical guide to published papers, conference proceedings papers and theses/dissertations on the finite element (FE) and boundary element (BE) applications in different fields of biomechanics between 1976 and 1991. The aim of this paper is to help the users of FE and BE techniques to get better value from a large collection of papers on the subjects. Categories in biomechanics included in this survey are: orthopaedic mechanics, dental mechanics, cardiovascular mechanics, soft tissue mechanics, biological flow, impact injury, and other fields of applications. More than 900 references are listed.

This paper aims to investigate the onset of convection, heat and mass transports in a sparse porous layer saturated with chemically reactive binary fluid mixture heated and salted from below under the influence of Soret and Dufour effects.

The Brinkman model is used for momentum equation. Linear stability analysis based on normal mode technique is used to evaluate the onset threshold for stationary and oscillatory convection. In weak-nonlinear theory, the truncated Fourier series method is used. The resulting system of differential equations is solved numerically by using the Runge–Kutta fourth-order method.

Because of the competition between the processes of thermal, solute diffusions, chemical reaction and cross-diffusions, the onset of instability is via oscillatory mode instead of stationary. The effect of dissolution/precipitation of reactive component and the cross-diffusions on the stability, heat and mass transports is investigated.

By the proper adjustment of underlying parameters, the onset of convection can either be advanced or delayed as per the requirement. Therefore, the present investigation forms a useful tool for regulating the onset of convection.

In this paper, various regularization methods are numerically implemented using the boundary element method (BEM) in order to solve the Cauchy steady‐state heat conduction problem in an anisotropic medium. The convergence and the stability of the numerical methods are investigated and compared. The numerical results obtained confirm that stable numerical results can be obtained by various regularization methods, but if high accuracy is required for the temperature, or if the heat flux is also required, then care must be taken when choosing the regularization method since the numerical results are substantially improved by choosing the appropriate method.

The present study aims to address the flow and heat transfer of MgO-MWCNTs/EG hybrid nanofluid in a complex shape enclosure filled with a porous medium. The enclosure is subject to a uniform inclined magnetic field and radiation effects. The effect of the presence of a variable magnetic field on the natural convection heat transfer of hybrid nanofluids in a complex shape cavity is studied for the first time. The geometry of the cavity is an annular space with an isothermal wavy outer cold wall. Two types of the porous medium, glass ball and aluminum metal foam, are adopted for the porous space. The governing equations for mass, momentum and heat transfer of the hybrid nanofluid are introduced and transformed into non-dimensional form. The actual available thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity data for the hybrid nanofluid are directly used for thermophysical properties of the hybrid nanofluid.

The governing equations for mass, momentum and heat transfer of hybrid nanofluid are introduced and transformed into non-dimensional form. The thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of the nanofluid are directly used from the experimental results available in the literature. The finite element method is used to solve the governing equations. Grid check procedure and validations were performed.

The effect of Hartmann number, Rayleigh number, Darcy number, the shape of the cavity and the type of porous medium on the thermal performance of the cavity are studied. The outcomes show that using the composite nanoparticles boosts the convective heat transfer. However, the rise of the volume fraction of nanoparticles would reduce the overall enhancement. Considering a convective dominant regime of natural convection flow with Rayleigh number of 107, the maximum enhancement ratio (Nusselt number ratio compared to the pure fluid) for the case of glass ball is about 1.17 and for the case of aluminum metal foam is about 1.15 when the volume fraction of hybrid nanoparticles is minimum as 0.2 per cent.

The effect of the presence of a variable magnetic field on the natural convection heat transfer of a new type of hybrid nanofluids, MgO-MWCNTs/EG, in a complex shape cavity is studied for the first time. The results of this paper are new and original with many practical applications of hybrid nanofluids in the modern industry.