Keynote Talk: Computational Modelling of Nanofluids Dynamics and Thermal Decomposition in a Microchannel

Microchannels play an important role in industrial fluid flow and heat transfer devices and are one of the essential parts of micro-machined fluid systems. Microchannels heat exchangers used in both cooling and heating processes are characterized by high heat transfer ratio, low refrigerant charges, compact size, and lower air-side pressure drops. The advent of nanofluids ensuing from nanotechnology has also yields a major improvement in industrial heat transfer processes and cooling technologies. In this presentation, a mathematical model describing the thermal decomposition of nanofluid contains ethylene glycol and water mixture with silver nanoparticles in a microchannel is theoretically examined. The nonlinear problem is tackled semi-analytically via perturbation method with a special type of Hermite-Padé approximation technique. The achieved pertinent results compare excellently well with the one obtained from numerical method based on shooting techniques coupled with Runge‑Kutta‑Fehlberg integration scheme. The effects of various emerging thermophysical parameters on the overall flow structure and thermal criticality in the flow system are presented graphically and discussed.