Abstract
From the past few decades, researchers are trying to explore efficient heat exchange mechanisms because of their numerous applications in modern nanotechnologies. However, the limitation of conventional heat transfer fluids restricts the desired performance of the systems. Therefore, nanofluids are introduced to overcome such limitations of conventional fluids. The recent developments in various nanofluidics applications have motivated us to explore the energy conversion of fluids with pressure-dependent viscosity (PDV) from channels having convergent-divergent walls. The equations governing the present fluid flow problem are highly nonlinear, and their exact solutions are not possible. Therefore, the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is used to find the approximate analytical solutions. We have considered silicon dioxide (SiO2) as a nanoparticle and water as a base fluid. The influence of various emerging parameters, such as the Hartmann number, the Eckert number, the Brinkman number, the nanoparticle volume fraction, and the convergence/divergence parameter, is analyzed thoroughly with the aid of graphs. The present numerical findings reveal that the fluid flow can be controlled by varying the pressure-dependent viscosity parameter. Moreover, it is found that the energy conversion process can be enhanced using nanoparticles. Also, the energy conversion rate can be improved by varying the values of the Hartmann number, the nanoparticle volume fraction, and the convergence/divergence parameter. The present study has numerous applications in micro-pumps, micro-valves, and micro-reactors.