Comparative heat transfer analysis of γ- Al2O3−C2H6O2 and γ- Al2O3−H2O electroconductive nanofluids in a saturated porous square cavity with Joule dissipation and heat source/sink effects

Abstract

Inspired by the applications in electromagnetic nanomaterials processing in enclosures and hybrid fuel cell technologies, a mathematical model is presented to analyze the mixed convective flow of electrically conducting nanofluids ([Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text]) inside a square enclosure saturated with porous medium under an inclined magnetic field. The Tiwari–Das model, along with the viscosity, thermal conductivity, and effective Prandtl number correlations, is considered in this study. The impacts of Joule heating, viscous dissipation, and internal heat absorption/generation are taken into consideration. Strongly nonlinear conservation equations, which govern the heat transfer and momentum inside the cavity with associated initial and boundary conditions, are rendered dimensionless with appropriate transformations. The marker-and-cell technique is deployed to solve the non-dimensional initial-boundary value problem. Validations with a previous study are included. A detailed parametric study is carried out to evaluate the influences of the emerging parameters on the transport phenomena. When [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] nanoparticles are suspended into [Formula: see text] base-fluid, the average heat transfer rate of [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] nanoliquid is increased by [Formula: see text] compared with the case where nanoparticles are absent. When [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] nanoparticles are suspended into [Formula: see text] base-fluid, the average heat transfer rate of [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] nanofluid is increased by [Formula: see text] compared with the case where nanoparticles are absent. Furthermore, when the heat source is present, the average heat transfer rate of [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] nanofluid is [Formula: see text] higher than that in the case of [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] nanofluid.