Numerical Study of Heat Transfer by Natural Convection in Concentric Hexagonal Cylinders Charged with a Nanofluid

Abstract

In this document, a numerical study of the natural convection of steady-state laminar heat transfer in a horizontal ring between a heated hexagonal inner cylinder and a cold hexagonal outer cylinder. A Cu - water nanofluid traverses this annular space. The system of equations governing the problem was solved numerically by the fluent calculation code based on the finite volume method. Based on the Boussinesq approximation. The interior and exterior sides from the two cylinders are maintained at a fixed temperature. We investigated the impacts of various thermal Rayleigh numbers (103≤ Rat ≤2.5x105), and the volume fraction from the nanoparticles (0≤ Ø ≤0.12) on fluid flow and heat transfer performance. It is found that in high thermal Rayleigh numbers, a thin thermal boundary layer is illustrated at the flow that heavily strikes the ceiling and lower from the outer cylinder. In addition, the local and mean Nusselt number from a nanofluid are enhanced by enhancing the volume fraction of the nanoparticles.The results are shown within the figure of isocurrents, isotherms, and mean and local Nusselt numbers. Detailed results of the numerical has been compared with literature ones, and it gives a reliable agreement.