Numerical Simulation of the Natural Convection with Presence of the Nanofluids in Cubical Cavity

Abstract

This article consists of a numerical study of natural convection heat transfer in three-dimensional cavity filled with nanofluids. This configuration is heated by a partition maintained at a hot constant and uniform temperature TH. The right and left vertical walls are kept at a cold temperature TC while the rest is adiabatic. The fluid flow and heat transfer in the cavity are studied for different sets of the governing parameters, namely, the nanofluid type, the Rayleigh number Ra = 103, 104, 105, and 106, and the volume fraction Ф varying between Ф = 0 and 0.1. The obtained results show a positive effect of the volume fraction and the Rayleigh number on the heat transfer improvement. The analysis of the results related to the heat transfer shows that the copper-based nanofluid guarantees the best thermal transfer. In addition, the increase of the heating section size and Ra leads to an increased amount of heat. Similarly, increasing the volume fraction improves the intensification of the flow and increases the heat exchange.