The appropriate utilization of entropy generation may provoke dipping losses in the available energy of nanofluid flow. The effects of chemical entropy generation in axisymmetric flow of Casson nanofluid between radiative stretching disks in the presence of thermal radiation, chemical reaction, and heat absorption/generation features have been mathematically modeled and simulated via interaction of slip boundary conditions. Shooting method has been employed to numerically solve dimensionless form of the governing equations, including expressions referring to entropy generation. The impacts of the physical parameters on fluid velocity components, temperature and concentration profiles, and entropy generation number are presented. Simulation results revealed that axial component of velocity decreases with variation of Casson fluid parameter. A declining variation in Bejan number was noticed with increment of Casson fluid constant. Moreover, a progressive variation in Bejan number resulted due to the impact of Prandtl number and stretching ratio constant.
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel usually produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. This study investigates the extraction of oil and its conversion into biodiesel by base-catalyzed transesterification. Firstly, the effect of various solvents (methanol, n-hexane, chloroform, di-ethyl ether) on extraction of oil from non-edible crops, such as R. communis and M. azedarach, were examined. It was observed that a higher concentration of oil was obtained from R. communis (43.6%) as compared to M. azedarach (35.6%) by using methanol and n-hexane, respectively. The extracted oils were subjected to NaOH (1%) catalyzed transesterification by analyzing the effect of oil/methanol molar ratio (1:4, 1:6, 1:8 and 1:10) and varying temperature (20, 40, 60 and 80 °C) for 2.5 h of reaction time. M. azedarach yielded 88% and R. communis yielded 93% biodiesel in 1:6 and 1:8 molar concentrations at ambient temperature whereas, 60 °C was selected as an optimum temperature, giving 90% (M. azedarach) and 94% (R. communis) biodiesel. The extracted oil and biodiesel were characterized for various parameters and most of the properties fulfilled the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard biodiesel. The further characterization of fatty acids was done by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer (GC/MS) and oleic acid was found to be dominant in M. azedarach (61.5%) and R. communis contained ricinoleic acid (75.53%). Furthermore, the functional groups were analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The results suggested that both of the oils are easily available and can be used for commercial biodiesel production at a cost-effective scale.
Ferro liquids derive their magneto–viscous behavior from the suspended magnetic nanomaterial that enables tunable changes in temperature, as well as nano-structured fluid characteristics. A theoretical model that depicts the bioconvection flow of cross nanofluid with a magnetic dipole subjected to a cylindrical surface was developed and numerically solved. The model encountered nonlinear thermal radiation, activation energy, and second order slip. The flow equations were reduced and are presented in dimensionless forms, and they were solved numerically using the shooting technique, which is a built-in feature of MatLab. The model encountered symmetrical constraints for predicting velocity, temperature, concentration, and gyrotactic microorganism distribution and profiles. Moreover, the numerical values were computed for local Nusselt number, local Sherwood number, and motile density number against each physical parameter.
This research communicates the triple diffusion perspective of Eyring–Powell nano-materials configured by a periodically moving configuration. The thermal consequences of variable natures are utilized as a novelty. Combined magnetic and porous medium effects are also involved, which result in a magneto-porosity parameter. The thermophoretic and Brownian motion aspects are reported by using Buongiorno's nanofluid theory. The formulated flow equations in non-dimensional forms are tackled with the implementation of a homotopy analysis algorithm. A detailed physical investigation against derived parameters is presented graphically. Due to periodically accelerated surface, the oscillations in velocity and wall shear stress have been examined.
In the electronic industry, dissipating the heat load becomes a critical factor for highly developed designs. These require higher power transfer in a more compact size. In the current study, a new microcooling system was developed and tested. It utilizes the enhancement in heat transfer characteristics associated with implementing a vortex promoter in the evaporator segment of a water-based heat pipe. The test evaporator was a cavity of 4-mm diameter and 23-mm length in an electrically heated aluminum block. A helical coil (of various diameters, namely 500, 300, and 250 μm) was introduced to the evaporator segment to act as a vortex promoter. Configurations of a new microcooling system based on a modified heat pipe technology were built and tested. The presented system proves to work efficiently in situations where a closed-loop thermosyphon encounters film boiling limitation. The most efficient configuration has a flow modifier diameter about one-tenth of the evaporator chamber gap, while the diameter of the return line was three-quarters of the evaporator gap. This configuration shows a stable operation characteristic and possesses high thermal efficiency. The maximum heat flux obtained by such a configuration was 305 W/cm2 when it runs at 103°C saturated temperature and 0.01°C/W thermal resistance. A uniform temperature distribution along the system was noticed.
5 October 2020 in Journal of Energy Resources Technology