Numerical study of the turbulent natural convection of nanofluids in a partially heated cubic cavity

Abstract

In this work we study numerically the 3-D turbulent natural convection in a partially heated cubic cavity filled with water containing metallic nanoparticles, metallic oxides, and others based on carbon. The objective is to study and compare the effect of the addition of nanoparticles studied in water and also the effect of the position of the heated partition on the heat exchange by turbulent natural convection in this type of geometry, which can significantly improve the design of heat exchange systems for better space optimization. For this we have treated numerically for different volume fractions the turbulent natural convection in the two cases where the cavity is heated respectively by a vertical and horizontal strip in the middle of one of the vertical walls. To take into account the effects of turbulence, we used the standard k-? turbulence model. The governing equations are discretized by the finite volume method using the power law scheme which offers a good stability characteristic in this type of flow. The results are presented in the form of isothermal lines and current lines. The variation of the mean Nusselt number is calculated for the two positions of the heated partition as a function of the volume fraction of the nanoparticles studied in water for different Rayleigh numbers. The results show that carbon-based nanoparticles intensify heat exchange by convection better and that the position of the heated partition significantly influences heat exchange by natural convection. In fact, an improvement in the average Nusselt number of more than 20% is observed for the case where the heated partition is horizontal.