Nanofluids are liquids that contain particles (or agglomerates of particles) up to 100 nm in size. Nanofluids have unique physical and chemical properties, such as significantly increased thermal conductivity compared to the carrier liquid. Currently, nanofluids are actively used in engineering, biology, pharmacology and other industries. Nanofluids are actively used in heat removal and temperature regulation in various devices, including laboratory devices used in biological experiments.
Along with the experimental study of nanofluids in the laboratory, mathematical and computer modeling plays a significant role. It allows testing various hydrophysical and temperature regimes for a wide range of parameters without using expensive experimental equipment. In this scientific work, researchers from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Al-Joufa University (Saudi Arabia) used mathematical modeling to study the spatial distribution of velocities and temperatures of a nanofluid when the flow is excited by rotating a smooth disk. Mathematically, the original Navier-Stokes equations, which are usually used in modeling fluid dynamics, were simplified using similarity transformations (von Karman transformations). Then, the corresponding simplified equations of steady flows were solved numerically, i.e. using computer modeling. Copper nanoparticles were considered as colloidal particles forming the nanofluid.
It was found that the most important parameter regulating the temperature regime is the proportion of copper nanoparticles in the liquid. It is hoped that the temperature and velocity fields found on the basis of calculations will soon improve the operation of various laboratory installations used in both biological and physical experiments, for example, to maintain the temperature regime of the experiment and the ability to quickly switch from one temperature regime to another.
The results were published in the journal: Alkuhayli, N.A.M. and Morozov, A., 2024. Analysis of Heat Transfer for the Copper–Water Nanofluid Flow through a Uniform Porous Medium Generated by a Rotating Rigid Disk. Mathematics, 12(10), p.1555.