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This study aims at investigating two-dimensional laminar flow of power-law fluids around three unconfined side-by-side cylinders.

The numerical study is performed by solving the governing (continuity and momentum) equations using a finite volume-based code ANSYS Fluent. The numerical results have been presented for different combinations of the governing dimensionless parameters (dimensionless spacing, 1.2 = L = 4; Reynolds number, 0.1 = Re = 100; power-law index, 0.2 = n = 1.8). The dependence of the kinematic and macroscopic characteristics of the flow such as streamline patterns, distribution of the surface pressure coefficient, total drag coefficient with its components (pressure and friction) and total lift coefficient on these dimensionless parameters has been discussed in detail.

It is found that the separation of the flow and the apparition of the wake region accelerate as the dimensionless spacing decreases, the number of the cylinder increases and/or the fluid behavior moves from shear-thinning to Newtonian then to shear-thickening behavior. In addition, the distribution of the pressure coefficient on the surface of the cylinders presents a complex dependence on the fluid behavior index and Reynolds number when the dimensionless spacing between two adjacent cylinders is varied. At low Reynolds numbers, the drag coefficient of shear-thinning fluids is stronger than that of Newtonian fluids; this tendency decreases progressively with increasing of Re until a critical value; beyond the critical Re, the opposite trend is observed. The lift coefficient of the middle cylinder is null, whereas, the exterior cylinders experience opposite lift coefficients, which show a complex dependence on the dimensionless spacing, the Reynolds number and the power-law index.

The flow over bluff bodies is a practical engineering problem. In the literature, it can be seen that the previous studies on non-Newtonian fluids are limited to the flow over one or two cylinders (effect of an odd number of cylinders on each other). Besides that, the available results concerning the flow of Newtonian fluids over three cylinders are limited to the high Reynolds numbers region only. However, this work treats the flow of non-Newtonian power-law fluids past three circular cylinders in side-by-side arrangements under a wide range of Re. The outcome of the present study demonstrates that the augmentation of the geometry complexity to three cylinders (effect of pair surrounding cylinders on the surrounded ones in what concerns Von Karman Street phenomenon) causes a drastic change in the flow patterns and in the macroscopic characteristics. The present results may be used to predict the flow behavior around multiple side-by-side cylinders.

The purpose of this paper is to apply lattice Boltzmann equation method (LBM) with multiple relaxation time (MRT) model, to investigate lid‐driven flow in a three‐dimensional (3D), rectangular cavity, and compare the results with flow in an equivalent two‐dimensional (2D) cavity.

The second‐order MRT model is implemented in a 3D LBM code. The flow structure in cavities of different aspect ratios (0.25‐4) and Reynolds numbers (0.01‐1000) is investigated. The LBM simulation results are compared with those from numerical solution of Navier‐Stokes (NS) equations and with available experimental data.

The 3D simulations demonstrate that 2D models may predict the flow structure reasonably well at low Reynolds numbers, but significant differences with experimental data appear at high Reynolds numbers. Such discrepancy between 2D and 3D results are attributed to the effect of boundary layers near the side‐walls in transverse direction (in 3D), due to which the vorticity in the core‐region is weakened in general. Secondly, owing to the vortex stretching effect present in 3D flow, the vorticity in the transverse plane intensifies whereas that in the lateral plane decays, with increase in Reynolds number. However, on the symmetry‐plane, the flow structure variation with respect to cavity aspect ratio is found to be qualitatively consistent with results of 2D simulations. Secondary flow vortices whose axis is in the direction of the lid‐motion are observed; these are weak at low Reynolds numbers, but become quite strong at high Reynolds numbers.

The findings will be useful in the study of variety of enclosed fluid flows.

This paper aims to study the effect of corrugated skins on the aerodynamic performance of the cambered NACA 0012 airfoils at different corrugations parameters, maximum cambers, Reynolds numbers and maximum camber locations.

In this work, numerical approach is concerned, and results are obtained based on the finite volume approach. To characterize the effect of corrugated skins, the NACA 0012-corrugated airfoil section is chosen as the base airfoil, and different cambered corrugated airfoil sections are obtained by inclusion the camber to the base airfoil. In this research, the corrugation shape is a sinusoidal wave and corrugated skins are in the aft 30 per cent of airfoil chord. To investigate the effect of corrugations on the cambered sections, the drag coefficient and averaged lift curve slope for the corrugated airfoils are compared to those of the corresponding smooth sections.

Results indicate that the effect of increase in the maximum camber and also Reynolds number on the relative zero-incidence drag coefficient is of little importance at low corrugation amplitudes, whereas at high corrugation, amplitude results in different behaviors. It is found that as the maximum camber increases, the deterioration in the relative curve slope introduced by corrugated skins is reduced, and reduction in this deterioration is significant for high corrugation amplitudes airfoils. It is shown that an increase in the maximum camber location has nearly no effect on the relative zero-incidence drag coefficient and also relative lift curve slope.

The outcome of the present research provides the clues for better understanding of the effect of different corrugations parameters on the aerodynamic performance of the unmanned air vehicles to have as high aerodynamic performance as possible in different mission profiles of such vehicles.

This study seeks to explore the aerodynamic performance of wings with different shapes at low Reynolds numbers.

The airfoils of these wings are made from aluminum plates, and the maximum cord length and wingspan are 15 cm. Wings A to D are plates with 6 percent Gottingen camber but different wing planforms. The forward‐half sections of wings E and F are dragonfly‐like, whereas the rear‐half sections of wings E and F are flat and positively cambered, respectively. The aspect ratios of these wings are close to one, and the ratios of plate thickness to the maximum cord length are 1.3 percent. Experimental results indicate that the wings with Gottingen camber have a superior lift and lift‐to‐drag ratio, whereas the wings with dragonfly‐like airfoils perform well in terms of drag and pitch moment.

The aerodynamic measurements of the wings demonstrate that the wing with the Gottingen camber airfoil, a swept‐back leading edge and a straight trailing edge is suitable for use in micro aerial vehicle (MAV). An MAV is fabricated with this wing and the aerodynamic performance of the MAV is examined and compared with the bare wing data.

This study develops several criteria to the design of MAV‐sized wings. For example, the thickness ratio of airfoil must be small, usually less than 2 percent. Besides, the airfoil must be cambered adequately. Furthermore, a wing planform with a swept‐back leading edge and a straight trailing edge would be contributive to the successful flights of MAVs.

The main objective of this study was to obtain the flow restricting capacity by determining their flow coefficients and to investigate the unsteady flow with low Reynolds number in the flow‐restricting devices such as orifices and capillary tubes having small diameters.

There is an enormous literature on the flow of Newtonian fluids through capillaries and orifices particularly in many application fields of the mechanical and chemical engineering. But most of the experimental results in literature are given for steady flows at moderate and high Reynolds numbers (Re>500). In this study, the unsteady flow at low Reynolds number (10<Re<650) through flow‐restricting devices such as orifices and capillary tubes having very small diameters between 0.35 and 0.70 mm were experimentally investigated.

The capillary tubes have much more capillarity property with respect to equal diameter orifices. Increasing the ratio of capillary tube length to tube diameter and decreasing the ratio of orifice diameter to pipe diameter before orifice increase the throttling or restricting property of the orifices and the capillary tubes. The orifices can be preferred to the capillary tubes having the same diameter at the same system pressure for the hydraulic systems or circuits requiring small velocity variations. The capillary tubes provide higher pressure losses and they can be also used as hydraulic accumulators in hydraulic control devices to attenuate flow‐induced vibrations because of their large pressure coefficients. An important feature of the results obtained for capillary tubes and small orifices is that as the d/D for orifices increases and the L/d reduces for capillary tubes, higher values C are obtained and the transition from viscous to inertia‐controlled flow appears to take place at lower Reynolds numbers. This may be explained by the fact that for small orifices with high d/D ratios and for capillary tubes with small L/d ratios, the losses due to viscous shear are small. Another important feature of the results is that the least variations in C for small orifices and the higher variations in C for capillary tubes occur when the d/D and L/d ratios are smallest. This has favourable implications in hydraulic control devices since a constant value for the C may be assumed even at relatively low values of Re.

To the authors' knowledge, there is not enough information in the literature about the flow coefficients of unsteady flows through capillary tubes and small orifices at low Reynolds numbers. This paper fulfils this gap.

This study aims to minimize the pressure drop across wavy microchannels using secondary branches without compromising its capacity to transfer the heat. The impact of secondary flows on the pressure drop and heat transfer capabilities at different Reynolds numbers are investigated numerically for different wavy microchannels. Finally, different channels are evaluated using performance evaluation criteria to determine their effectiveness.

To investigate the flow and heat transfer capabilities in wavy microchannels having secondary branches, a 3D conjugate heat transfer model based on finite volume method is used. In conventional wavy microchannel, secondary branches are introduced at crest and trough locations. For the numerical simulation, a single symmetrical channel is used to minimize computational time and resources and the flow within the channels remains single-phase and laminar.

The findings indicate that the suggested secondary channels notably improve heat transfer and decrease pressure drop within the channels. At lower flow rates, the secondary channels demonstrate superior performance in terms of heat transfer. However, the performance declines as the flow rate increased. With the same amplitude and wavelength, the introduction of secondary channels reduces the pressure drop compared with conventional wavy channels. Due to the presence of secondary channels, the flow splits from the main channel, and part of the core flow gets diverted into the secondary channel as the flow takes the path of minimum resistance. Due to this flow split, the core velocity is reduced. An increase in flow area helps in reducing pressure drop.

Many complex and intricate microchannels are proposed by the researchers to augment heat dissipation. There are challenges in the fabrication of microchannels, such as surface finish and achieving the required dimensions. However, due to the recent developments in metal additive manufacturing and microfabrication techniques, the complex shapes proposed in this paper are feasible to fabricate.

Wavy channels are widely used in heat transfer and micro-fluidics applications. The proposed wavy microchannels with secondary channels are different when compared to conventional wavy channels and can be used practically to solve thermal challenges. They help achieve a lower pressure drop in wavy microchannels without compromising heat transfer performance.

The purpose of this study is three-dimensional flow and heat transfer investigation of water/Al₂O₃ nanofluid inside a microchannel with different cross-sections in two-phase mode.

The effect of microchannel walls geometry (trapezoidal, sinusoidal and stepped microchannels) on flow characteristics and also changing circular cross section to trapezoidal cross section in laminar flow at Reynolds numbers of 50, 100, 300 and 600 were investigated. In this study, two-phase water/Al₂O₃ nanofluid is simulated by the mixture model, and the effect of volume fraction of nanoparticles on performance evaluation criterion (PEC) is studied. The accuracy of obtained results was compared with the experimental and numerical results of other similar papers.

Results show that in flow at lower Reynolds numbers, sinusoidal walls create a pressure drop in pure water flow which improves heat transfer to obtain PEC < 1. However, in sinusoidal and stepped microchannel with higher Reynolds numbers, PEC > 1. Results showed that the stepped microchannel had higher pressure drop, better thermal performance and higher PEC than other microchannels.

Review of previous studies showed that existing papers have not compared and investigated nanofluid in a two-phase mode in inhomogeneous circular, stepped and sinusoidal cross and trapezoidal cross-sections by considering the effect of changing channel shape, which is the aim of the present paper.

This study aims to investigate lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulation of the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of a heated porous elliptic cylinder in uniform flow based on the two-domain scheme. In the present research, the effect of axis ratio (1 ≤ AR ≤ 2), Reynolds number (5 ≤ Re ≤ 40) and Darcy number (10⁻⁴ ≤ Da ≤ 10⁻²) are studied.

To perform the LB simulation based on the two-domain scheme, the nonequilibrium extrapolation method is modified to model the heat transfer interfacial conditions required at the curved interface.

The results show that the axis ratio as well as Reynolds and Darcy numbers significantly affect the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of the porous elliptic cylinder. It is shown that for AR > 1, the phenomenon of detached recirculating zone occurs at much higher Darcy numbers compared with the case of the porous circular cylinder (AR = 1). The results show that the location of maximum temperature within the cylinder moves downstream when the Reynolds number, Darcy number and axis ratio increase. It is also concluded that the average Nusselt number of a porous elliptic cylinder is always lower than that of a porous circular cylinder.

The LB simulation of forced convection from a porous cylinder in uniform flow with a curved interface based on the two-domain scheme has not been studied yet.

In this paper three‐dimensional numerical simulations were conducted for the periodically developed laminar flow in the sinusoid wavy fin‐and‐tube heat exchanger.

A novel CLEARER algorithm is adopted to guarantee the fully coupling between the pressure and velocity, and it can not only speed up the convergence rate, but also overcome the severe grid non‐orthogonality in the wavy fin‐and‐tube heat exchanger. The influence of wave amplitude, fin pitch, tube diameter and wave density on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics is analyzed under different Reynolds numbers.

The numerical results show that with the increase of wave amplitude, tube diameter or wave density, both the friction factor and Nusselt number will increase, and the increase rate of friction factor is higher than that of Nusselt number. It is interesting to note that, at low Reynolds numbers the Nusselt number increases with the decrease of fin pitch, while at high Reynolds numbers, the Nusselt number increases with the increase of fin pitch.

The numerical results presented in this paper may provide some useful guidance in the design of the wavy fin‐and‐tube heat exchanger with large number of rows of tubes.

Although many studies have been conducted on the nanofluid flow in microtubes, this paper, for the first time, aims to investigate the effects of nanoparticle diameter and concentration on the velocity and temperature fields of turbulent non-Newtonian Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)/copper oxide (CuO) nanofluid in a three-dimensional microtube. Modeling has been done using low- and high-Reynolds turbulent models. CMC/CuO was modeled using power law non-Newtonian model. The authors obtained interesting results, which can be helpful for engineers and researchers that work on cooling of electronic devices such as LED, VLSI circuits and MEMS, as well as similar devices.

Present numerical simulation was performed with finite volume method. For obtaining higher accuracy in the numerical solving procedure, second-order upwind discretization and SIMPLEC algorithm were used. For all Reynolds numbers and volume fractions, a maximum residual of 10⁻⁶ is considered for saving computer memory usage and the time for the numerical solving procedure.

In constant Reynolds number and by decreasing the diameter of nanoparticles, the convection heat transfer coefficient increases. In Reynolds numbers of 2,500, 4,500 and 6,000, using nanoparticles with the diameter of 25 nm compared with 50 nm causes 0.34 per cent enhancement of convection heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number. Also, in Reynolds number of 2,500, by increasing the concentration of nanoparticles with the diameter of 25 nm from 0.5 to 1 per cent, the average Nusselt number increases by almost 0.1 per cent. Similarly, In Reynolds numbers of 4,500 and 6,000, the average Nusselt number increases by 1.8 per cent.

The numerical simulation was carried out for three nanoparticle diameters of 25, 50 and 100 nm with three Reynolds numbers of 2,500, 4,500 and 6,000. Constant heat flux is on the channel, and the inlet fluid becomes heated and exists from it.

The authors obtained interesting results, which can be helpful for engineers and researchers that work on cooling of electronic devices such as LED, VLSI circuits and MEMS, as well as similar devices.

This manuscript is an original work, has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. About the competing interests, the authors declare that they have no competing interests.