Enhancement of natural convection heat transfer in a U-shaped cavity filled with Al2O3-water nanofluid

Abstract

This paper investigates the natural convection heat transfer enhancement of Al2O3-water nanofluid in a U-shaped cavity. In performing the analysis, the governing equations are modeled using the Boussinesq approximation and are solved numerically using the finite-volume numerical method. The study examines the effects of the nanoparticle volume fraction, the Rayleigh number and the geometry parameters on the mean Nusselt number. The results show that for all values of the Rayleigh number, the mean Nusselt number increases as the volume fraction of nanoparticles increases. In addition, it is shown that for a given length of the heated wall, extending the length of the cooled wall can improve the heat transfer performance.