Mathematical Modeling of Pseudoplastic Nanofluid Natural Convection in a Cavity with a Heat-Generating Unit and Solid Finned Heat Sink

Abstract

The power-law nanofluid natural convection in a chamber with a thermally generating unit and a solid ribbed structure has been studied in this work. A mixture of carboxymethylcellulose with water and copper nanoparticles is a working fluid illustrating pseudoplastic properties. The effective properties of the nanoliquid have been described by experimental correlations reflecting the temperature effect. The governing equations have been formulated on the basis of the conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy employing non-primitive parameters such as stream function and vorticity. The defined boundary value problem has been worked out by the finite difference technique using an independently developed calculation system. The Rayleigh number is fixed for analysis (Ra = 105). The paper analyzes the influence of the nanoparticles volume fraction, an increase in which reduces the temperature in the case of the one edge presence. An analysis of the rib height has shown that its growth leads to a weakening of the convective heat transfer, but at the same time, the source temperature also decreases. Increasing the number of fins from 1 to 3 also helps to reduce the average temperature of the heat-generated element by 15%.