Investigation des échanges convectifs dans diverses configurations

Abstract

This thesis reports the results of two studies: the first one concerns natural convection in isosceles triangular cavities with a partially active base while the second one concerns heat transfer in microchannels. The first study considers natural convection cooling of a heat source located on the bottom wall of an inclined isosceles triangular enclosure filled with a Cu water-nanofluid. The right and left walls of the enclosure are both maintained cold at constant equal temperatures, while the remaining parts of the bottom wall are insulated. The study has been carried out for a Rayleigh number in the range 104 ≤ Ra ≤ 106, for a heat source length in the range 0.2 ≤ ε ≤ 0.8, for a solid volume fraction in the range 0.0 ≤ � ≤ 06 and for an inclination angle in the range 00 ≤ δ ≤ 450. Results are presented in the form of streamline contours, isotherms, maximum temperature at the heat source surface and average Nusselt number. It is noticed that the addition of Cu nanoparticles enhances the heat transfer rate and therefore cooling effectiveness for all values of Rayleigh number, especially at low values of Ra. The effect of the inclination angle becomes more noticeable as one increases the value of Ra. For high Rayleigh numbers, a critical value for the inclination angle of δ = 150 is found for which the heat source maximum temperature is highest. The second study investigates heat transfer in microchannels machined in heat dissipating sinks. The fluid used is a nanofluid whose properties are temperature dependent. The energy dissipation is evaluated for various solid fraction contents along with the cooling effectiveness of this modern type of heat exchangers. The shape of the channels is also investigated. The evaluation parameter used for thermal energy dissipation is the Nusselt number while that used for cooling effectiveness is the static pressure drop between the inlet and the outlet of the microchannel. Conjugate convection-conduction energy conservation equations have been solved along with mass and momentum conservation equations in order to determine these parameters. The results obtained showed important heat transfer augmentation with solid fraction at the expense of an increased pressure drop, i.e high pumping cost (therefore low cooling effectiveness). The microchannel inlet section geometry was also found to contribute to the values of the Nusselt number and pressure drop. Among the tested geometries (elliptical, rectangular, trapezoidal) the rectangular section provided the best compromise between heat transfer augmentation and pumping cost. At the end of the study, a comparison was made between the results obtained by assuming Newtonian rheology and those obtained with non-Newtonian rheological behavior of the same nanofluid sample. It was found that the assumption of non-Newtonian rheological behavior of nanofluids gives higher Nusselt number values and much lower pressure drops.