Natural Convection in a Nano-Fluid Filled Square Enclosure

Abstract

The present study relates to numerical investigation of natural convection heat transfer in a nanofluid filled square enclosure. One side of the enclosure is maintained at high temperature and the other side at a low temperature; while the top and bottom sides are adiabatic. The commercial CFD software ANSYS-FLUENT© was used to solve this numerical problem with the governing differential equations discretized by a control volume approach. nanofluids of Cu-water, Al2O3-water and TiO2-water have been simulated for a range of Rayleigh numbers and volume fractions. The results were obtained in the form of streamlines and isotherms. Interpretations of the results are done based on heat transfer rates, volume fraction, Rayleigh number and Nusselt number. It is to be noted that addition of nanoparticles enhances the heat transfer rate. It is also observed that the Nusselt number is highly affected by volume fraction and Rayleigh number.