The effect of velocity and dimension of solid nanoparticles on heat transfer in non-Newtonian nanofluid

In this investigation, the behavior of non-Newtonian nanofluid hydrodynamic and heat transfer are simulated. In this study, we numerically simulated a laminar forced non-Newtonian nanofluid flow containing a 0.5 wt% carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) solutionin water as the base fluid with alumina at volume fractions of 0.5 and 1.5 as the solid nanoparticle. Numerical solution was modelled in Cartesian coordinate system in a two-dimensional microchannel in Reynolds number range of 10≤Re≤1000. The analyzed geometrical space here was a rectangular part of whose upper and bottom walls was influenced by a constant temperature. The effect of volume fraction of the nanoparticles, Reynolds number and non-Newtonian nanofluids was studied. In this research, the changes pressure drop, the Nusselt number, dimensionless temperature and heat transfer coefficient, caused by the motion of non-Newtonian nanofluids are described. The results indicated that the increase of the volume fraction of the solid nanoparticles and a reduction in the diameter of the nanoparticles would improve heat transfer which is more significant in Reynolds number. The results of the introduced parameters in the form of graphs drawing and for different parameters are compared.     

Analysis of heat transfer and nanofluid fluid flow in microchannels with trapezoidal,rectangular and triangular shaped ribs

In the present study, the effect of triangular, rectangular and trapezoidal ribs on the laminar heat transfer of water-Ag nanofluid in a ribbed triangular channel under a constant heat flux was numerically studied using finite volume method. Height and width of ribs have been assumed to be fixed in order to study the effect of different rib forms. Modeling were performed for laminar flow (Re=1, 50 and 100) and nanofluid volume fractions of 0, 2% and 4%. The results indicated that an increase in volume fraction of solid nanoparticle leads to convectional heat transfer coefficient enhancement of the cooling fluid, whereas increasing the Nusselt number results in a loss of friction coefficient and pressure. Also, along with the fluid velocity increment, there will be an optimal proportion between heat and hydrodynamic transfer behavior which optimizes performance evaluation criteria (PEC) behavior. Among all of the investigated rib forms, the rectangular one made the most changes in the streamlines and the triangular form has the best thermal performance evaluation criteria values. For all studied Reynold numbers, heat transfer values are least for rectangular rib from. Therefore, trapezoidal ribs are recommended in high Reynold numbers.     

Modeling of nanoparticles’ aggregation and sedimentation in nanofluid

The aggregation and sedimentation of nanoparticles in nanofluid have significant influences on the stability and applicability of nanofluids. The objective of this study is to propose a model to predict the nanoparticles’ aggregation and sedimentation characteristics. The characteristics are evaluated by the concentration of nanoparticles in nanofluid at different time. The concentration of nanoparticles can be calculated according to the speed and location of each nanoparticle. Then, the speed and location of each nanoparticle can be yielded when the forces on each nanoparticle are determined. For the forces on nanoparticles are related to the space structure of nanoparticle clusters, the clusters’ space structures are simulated. Case study shows that the mean deviation of predicted nanoparticle concentration from experimental data for Fullerence + H₂O, Fullerence + Oil and CuO + Oil nanofluids are 25%, 16% and 13%, respectively. The model can provide quantitative prediction of the aggregation and sedimentation characteristics of nanoparticles in nanofluid.     

Numerical simulation of laminar forced convection of water-CuO nanofluid inside a triangular duct

In this article, distilled water and CuO particles with volume fraction of 1%, 2% and 4% are numerically studied. The steady state flow regime is considered laminar with Reynolds number of 100, and nano-particles diameters are assumed 20 nm and 80 nm. The hydraulic diameter and the length of equilateral triangular channel are 8 mm and 1000 mm, respectively. The problem is solved for two different boundary conditions; firstly, constant heat flux for all sides as a validation approach; and secondly, constant heat flux for two sides and constant temperature for one side (hot plate). Convective heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, pressure loss through the channel, velocity distribution in cross section and temperature distribution on walls are investigated in detail. The fluid flow is supposed to be one-phase flow. It can be observed that nano-fluid leads to a remarkable enhancement on heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, CuO particles increase pressure loss through the channel and velocity distribution in fully developed cross section of channel, as well. The computations reveal that the size of nano-particles has no significant influence on heat transfer properties. Besides, the study shows a good agreement between provided outcomes and experimental data available in the literature.     

Intensification of ultrasound-assisted process for the preparation of spindle-shape sodium zinc molybdate nanoparticles

In the present work, sodium zinc molybdate (SZM) nanoparticles were prepared using conventional and an innovative ultrasound assisted co-precipitation of sodium molybdate, zinc oxide and HNO₃ at different temperatures. Prepared product was characterized by XRD, TEM, FT-IR, particle size distribution (PSD), TGA and DTA techniques. TEM analysis shows the spindle-shaped morphology of the formed SZM nanoparticles. The average particle size of SZM nanoparticles is found to be lower in case of sonochemical method (78.3 nm) compared to conventional method (340.2 nm) which is attributed to faster solute transfer rate due to ultrasonic irradiation leading to rapid nucleation and restricted growth of SZM nanoparticles. Further, the kinetics of synthesis of SZM nanoparticles are studied using the sonochemical method at different operating temperature and conventional method at 80 °C. It is shown that the rate of reaction is significantly faster at 40 °C compared to other temperatures and also conventional method. This can be attributed to intense cavity collapse at lower temperature (low vapour pressure) compared to higher temperature (high vapour pressure) of the reaction mixture.     

Wettability,optical property of a superhydrophobic YAG film

A flame-like superhydrophobic yttrium aluminum garnet surface was obtained by a simple approach under ambient conditions. The influences of the concentration of curing agent and paraffin wax in course of the experiment were investigated. The as-prepared film shows superhydrophobicity which has a water contact angle of 158 ± 1.0°, and sliding angle of 4 ± 1.0°. Moreover, the water contact angle of the rough surface remained higher than 150°, after exposure for 10 days. Transmission electronic microscope, scanning electronic microscope, fluorescence spectrometer and atomic force microscope were also used to characterize the samples.     

Characteristic stability of bare Au-water nanofluids fabricated by pulsed laser ablation in liquids

Gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) suspended in water where the suspension is a kind of nanofluid, were produced by pulsed laser ablation in liquids. Under the laser irradiation conditions up to 18 h, the average size of the Au-NPs ranged from 7.1 to 12.1 nm while their size-distribution tended to become narrower with effects of laser-induced fragmentation. Interestingly, the nanofluid showed an outstanding colloidal stability even after 1 month although no dispersants were used. The characteristic stability of bare Au-NPs suspension in water was found to be due to a large negative zeta potential of Au-NPs in water. The thermal conductivity of the Au-NPs (0.018 vol%)/water suspension increased by 9.3±5.4% compared to that of pure water.     

Preferred orientation of ZnO nanoparticles formed by post-thermal annealing zinc implanted silica

High quality zinc oxide nanoparticles with (002) preferred orientation were prepared by post-thermal annealing zinc implanted silica at 700 °C using two methods. One method was annealing zinc implanted silica at 700 °C for 2 h in oxygen ambient; the other method was sequentially annealing zinc implanted silica at 700 °C in nitrogen and oxygen ambient for 1 h, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD), absorption and microphotoluminescence (micro-PL) results indicated that the latter method could create high quality ZnO nanoparticles with (002) preferred orientation and narrow size-distribution. X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) showed the formation of ZnO nanoparticles on a silica surface, where the ZnO nanoparticle content increased with increasing oxidation time in an oxygen environment. The processes of the transformation from Zn to ZnO are discussed.     

A high-Q biochemical sensor using a total internal reflection mirror-based triangular resonator with an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer

We propose and analyze a high effective Q-factor triangular ring resonator (TRR) coupled with an asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer (AMZI), in which the long evanescent fields on a total internal reflection (TIR) mirror in the TRR and the field cancelation by the phase difference of each path in the AMZI are utilized. The TRR is employed in order to more effectively measure the quantities that occur during biological events because the evanescent field of the TIR mirror with its sharp incident angle is influenced by the Goos–Hänchen shift. In this paper, we report upon the AMZI-coupled TRR sensor structure with the high effective Q-factor of about 10⁵ obtained through the optimization of the AMZI path-length. The sensitivity of the resonance shift when changing the refractive index of 1 × 10^? 4 at the incidence angle of 22.92° has been identified to be as high as 0.48 × 10⁴ nm/RIU. In addition, the power sensitivity of the AMZI-coupled TRR with a 17 dB attenuation is 5.7 × 10⁵ dB/RIU.     

Desorption of O2 from a stepped platinum(113) surface during 308 nm laser irradiation

Angular and velocity distributions of desorbing O₂ during irradiation of 308 nm laser pulses were studied on a stepped Pt(1 1 3) surface. With increases in the coverage, three desorption components collimated at around 12°, 30° and 50° successively appeared when the desorption angle was changed in a plane along the step edge. The translational temperature also showed maxima at these collimation angles, and the values were slightly lower than previous results for 193 nm irradiation. Some possible desorption mechanisms are discussed.     

Ultrasonic free fatty acids esterification in tobacco and canola oil

Ultrasound accelerates the free fatty acids esterification rate by reducing the mass transfer resistance between methanol in the liquid phase and absorbed organic species on Amberlyst®46 catalyst. The reaction rates of canola oil is three times greater than for tobacco seed oil but half the reaction rate of pure oleic acid as measured in a batch reactor. The beneficial effects of ultrasound vs. the conventional approach are more pronounced at lower temperatures (20 °C and 40 °C vs. 63 °C): at 20 °C, the free fatty acids conversion reaches 68% vs. 23% with conventional mechanical stirring. The increased conversion is attributed to acoustic cavitation that increases mass transfer in the vicinity of the active sites. The Eley–Rideal kinetic model in which the concentration of the reacting species is expressed taking into account the mass transfer between the phases is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. Ultrasound increases the mass transfer coefficient in the tobacco oil 6 and 4.1 fold at 20 °C and 40 °C, respectively.     

The numerical investigation of heat transfer and pressure drop of turbulent flow in a triangular microchannel

In this presentation, the flow and heat transfer inside a microchannel with a triangular section, have been numerically simulated. In this three-dimensional simulation, the flow has been considered turbulent. In order to increase the heat transfer of the channel walls, the semi-truncated and semi-attached ribs have been placed inside the channel and the effect of forms and numbers of ribs has been studied. In this research, the base fluid is Water and the effect of volume fraction of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles on the amount of heat transfer and physics of flow have been investigated. The presented results are including of the distribution of Nusselt number in the channel, friction coefficient and Performance Evaluation Criterion of each different arrangement. The results indicate that, the ribs affect the physics of flow and their influence is absolutely related to Reynolds number of flow. Also, the investigation of the used semi-truncated and semi-attached ribs in Reynolds number indicates that, although heat transfer increases, but more pressure drop arises. Therefore, in this method, in order to improve the heat transfer from the walls of microchannel on the constant heat flux, using the pump is demanded.     

Thermal and sonochemical synthesis of porous (Ce,Zr)O2 mixed oxides from metal β-diketonate precursors and their catalytic activity in wet air oxidation process of formic acid

Porous (Ce_0.5Zr_0.5)O₂ solid solutions were prepared by thermolysis (T = 285 °C) or sonolysis (20 kHz, I = 32 W cm⁻², P_ac = 0.46 W mL⁻¹, T = 200 °C) of Ce(III) and Zr(IV) acetylacetonates in oleylamine or hexadecylamine under argon followed by heat treatment of the precipitates obtained in air at 450 °C. Transmission Electron Microscopy images of the samples show nanoparticles of ca. 4–6 nm for the two synthetic approaches. The powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray and μ-Raman spectroscopy of solids obtained after heat treatment indicate the formation of (Ce_0.5Zr_0.5)O₂ solid solutions with a metastable tetragonal crystal structure for the two synthetic routes. The specific surface area of the samples varies between 78 and 149 m² g⁻¹ depending on synthesis conditions. The use of Barrett–Joyner–Halenda and t-plot methods reveal the formation of mixed oxides with a hybrid morphology that combines mesoporosity and microporosity regardless of the method of preparation. Platinum nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of the mixed oxides by sonochemical reduction of Pt(IV). It was found that the materials prepared by sonochemistry exhibit better resistance to dissolution during the deposition process of platinum. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows the presence of Pt(0) and Pt(II) on the surface of mixed oxides. Porous (Ce_0.5Zr_0.5)O₂ mixed oxides loaded with 1.5 %wt. platinum exhibit high activity in catalytic wet air oxidation of formic acid at 40 °C.     

An experimental correlation approach for predicting thermal conductivity of water-EG based nanofluids of zinc oxide

In this study, the effects of temperature (20 °C<T<50 °C) and volume fracti°n (0<φ<4%) on the thermal conductivity of zinc oxide/ethylene glycol-water nanofluid have been presented. Nanofluid samples were prepared by a two-step method and thermal conductivity measurements were performed by a KD2 pro instrument. Results showed that the thermal conductivity increases uniformly with increasing solid volume fraction and temperature. The results also revealed that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids significantly increases with increasing solid volume fraction at higher temperatures. Moreover, it can be seen that for more concentrated samples, the effect of temperature was more tangible. Experimental thermal conductivity enhancement of the nanofluid in comparison with the Maxwell model indicated that Maxwell model was unable to predict the thermal conductivity of the present nanofluid. Therefore, a new correlation was presented for predicting the thermal conductivity of ZnO/EG-water nanofluid.     

The super-hydrophobic IR-reflectivity TiO2 coated hollow glass microspheres synthesized by soft-chemistry method

The super-hydrophobic and IR-reflectivity hollow glass microspheres (HGM) was synthesized by being coated with anatase TiO₂ and a super-hydrophobic material. The super-hydrophobic self-cleaning property prolong the life time of the IR reflectivity. TBT and PFOTES were firstly applied and hydrolyzed on HGM and then underwent hydrothermal reaction to synthesis anatase TiO₂ film. For comparison, the PFOTES/TiO₂ mutual-coated HGM (MCHGM), PFOTES single-coated HGM (F-SCHGM) and TiO₂ single-coated HGM (Ti-SCHGM) were synthesized as well. The MCHGM had bigger contact angle (153°) but smaller sliding angle (16°) than F-SCHGM (contact angle: 141.2°; sliding angle: 67°). Ti-SCHGM and MCHGM both showed similar IR reflectivity with ca. 5.8% increase compared with original HGM and F-SCHGM. For the thermal conductivity, coefficients of F-SCHGM (0.0479 W/(m K)) was basically equal to that of the original HGM (0.0475 W/(m K)). Negligible difference was found between the thermal conductivity coefficients of MCHGM-coated HGM (0.0543 W/(m K)) and Ti-SCHGM (0.0546 W/(m K)).     

Fabrication of NdCeCuO and effects of binding agents on the growth,micro-structural and electrical properties

NdCeCuO superconducting samples were fabricated using ethyl alcohol, acetone and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as binding agents. For evaporation of binding agents, the samples were heat treated at 1050 °C for 24 h and then at 950 °C for 6–48 h under argon atmosphere to obtain the superconducting phase. The best superconducting performance was found in the sample heat treated at 1050 °C for 24 h and then 950 °C for 12 h which was fabricated by using acetone as binding agent. The T_c and T₀ value was found to be ～25 K and 23.4 K, respectively. Grain size in the samples fabricated was calculated using Scherer equation and SEM data. It was found that grain size strongly depends on the binding agents and heat treatment conditions. Some cracks and voids on the surface of the samples were observed, which influences the superconducting and electrical transport properties of the samples.     

Influence of heat treatment on field emission characteristics of boron nitride thin films

Boron nitride (BN) nanometer thin films are synthesized on Si (1 0 0) substrates by RF reactive magnetron sputtering. Then the film surfaces are treated in the case of the base pressure below 5 × 10⁻⁴ Pa and the temperature of 800 and 1000 °C, respectively. And the films are studied by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), atomic force microscopic (AFM) and field emission characteristics at different annealing temperature. The results show that the surface heat treatment makes no apparent influence on the surface morphology of the BN films. The transformations of the sample emission characteristics have to do with the surface negative electron affinity (NEA) of the films possibly. The threshold electric fields are lower for BN samples without heat-treating than the treated films, which possibly ascribed to the surface negative electron affinity effect. A threshold field of 8 V/μm and the emission current of 80 μA are obtained. The surface NEA is still presence at the heat treatment temperature of 800 °C and disappeared at temperature of 1000 °C.     

Nanostructure materials for destruction of warfare agents and eco-toxins prepared by homogeneous hydrolysis with thioacetamide: Part 1—zinc oxide

Zinc sulphide (ZnS) nanoparticles were prepared by homogeneous hydrolysis of zinc sulphate and thioacetamide (TAA) at 80 °C. After annealing at temperature above 400 °C in oxygen atmosphere, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were obtained. The ZnS and ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission microscopy (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), by BET and BJH methods used for surface area and porosity determination. The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared ZnO samples was determined by the decomposition of Orange II in the aqueous solution under UV irradiation of 365 nm of wavelength.     

Shape analysis of wavelength-insensitive grating in the resonance domain

A triangular grating was compared with a rectangular one to investigate the effect of the shape, polarization and wavelength on the transmissivity and the diffraction angle distribution. The rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) and the nonstandard finite-difference time-domain (NS-FDTD) algorithm were used for the calculation. We found that the triangular grating in TE mode had the least wavelength dependence in the resonance domain, and this was explained by two independent parameters—(depth/wavelength) and (diffraction order × wavelength / period), whose ratio of the contribution to the diffraction efficiency equation was dependent on grating shape and polarization.     

Spin coating-pyrolysis derived highly c-axis-oriented ZnO layers pre-fired at various temperatures

Transparent ZnO layers were prepared on silica glass substrates by the spin coating-pyrolysis process. As-deposited films were pre-fired at 250 °C for 60 min, at 350 °C for 30 min, and at 500 °C for 10 min, followed by heat treatment at 900 °C for 30 min in air. The ZnO films were analyzed by high resolution X-ray diffraction, field emission-scanning electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, and ultraviolet–visible–near infrared spectrophotometry. (0 0 2)-oriented ZnO films were obtained by pre-firing at 350 °C and at 500 °C. All the ZnO films exhibited a high transmittance, above 80%, in the visible region, and showed a sharp fundamental absorption edge at 0.38–0.40 μm. The most highly c-axis-oriented ZnO with a homogeneous surface was observed at a pyrolysis temperature of 350 °C.