Effects of Brownian Motions and Fractal Structure of Nanoparticles on Natural Convection

Abstract

The study simulated heat transfer in alumina-water nanofluid in a natural convection flow and Rayleigh-Benard configuration considering the Brownian motions and fractal structure of the nanofluids. The simulations were based on a two-dimensional, Eulerian-Eulerian method. Many simulations have been performed to examine the effect of aspect ratio, heat flux, and para-meters related to the structure of the nanoclusters including size, fractal dimension, and volume fraction on the natural convective heat transfer coefficient. The comparison between the simulation results and the experimental data of heat transfer coefficient indicates a good agreement. The simulation results indicated that the enhancement of aspect ratio, heat flux, and fractal dimension increases the heat transfer coefficient. On the other hand, the reduction of nanoclusters and nanoparticle size decreased this coefficient. Moreover, the simulation results showed that in high heat transfer fluxes, the heat transfer coefficient first increases by increasing the nanoparticles solid volume fraction and then decreases. However, heat transfer coefficient decreased steadily with the increase in the nanoparticles solid volume fraction in low heat transfer fluxes. The results suggested that using the nanoparticles Brownian motion mechanism along with their fractal structure can be well-applied in natural-convection heat transfer modelling of nanofluids.