Experimental Investigation of Mixed Convection on a Rotating Circular Cylinder in a Cavity Filled With Nanofluid and Porous Media

Abstract

The present study, experimentally investigated the mixed convection in a square enclosure partitioned in two layers. The experiments were performed with Al2O3–water nanofluid (upper layer) and superposed porous medium (lower layer) with an adiabatic rotating cylinder at the center of the cavity. The boundary conditions of the experimental study were; the upper and lower walls were assumed adiabatic, the right wall was heated, and the left wall was cooled. Experimentally, 15 K-type thermocouples and thermal imaging camera were employed to measure the temperatures distribution inside the cavity when the concentration of nanoparticles (ɸ = 0.06), the temperature difference (∆T) between the cold and hot walls was (6, 8, and 10) °C, and angular rotational velocity (-50, -25, 0, 25, and 50) rpm. The results of experimental data showed that in general, the distribution of temperatures was very well along the upper half of the enclosure, while in the lower half the temperature distribution was confined near the hot wall region. When the circular cylinder rotates in counter-clockwise, it noted that the effect of speed is evident in the downside of the cylinder, while the temperature distribution in the left upper part of the enclosure decreasing. When the circular cylinder rotates in the clockwise direction, the results showed that the effect of cylinder rotation was around cylinder only. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the increasing temperature difference leads to a noticeable increment in the intensity of the flow.