Heat transfer in lid driven channels with power law fluids in a hydrodynamic fully developed flow field

We present a finite element numerical study of heat transfer in lid driven channels with fully developed axial flow for non-Newtonian power law fluids. The effect of channel aspect ratio and material properties on temperature distribution and wall heat transfer are studied. The results show that in comparison with Newtonian fluids the shear thinning property of the fluids acts to reduce the local viscous dissipative heating and as a result the axial local fluid temperature is reduced. Applications of the results to scraped-surface heat exchanger design and operation are recommended.