Natural Convection Heat Transfer of Nanofluids Due to Thermophoresis and Brownian Diffusion in a Square Enclosure
Aminreza Noghrehabadi1, Amin Samimi2
1Aminreza Noghrehabadi, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
2Amin Samimi, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
Manuscript received on July 17, 2012. | Revised Manuscript received on August 25, 2012. | Manuscript published on August 30, 2012. | PP: 88-93 | Volume-1 Issue-6, August 2012. | Retrieval Number: F0637081612/2012©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: This paper reports a numerical study on natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow in a square cavity filled with CuO–Water nanofluids. Both upper and lower surfaces are being insulated, whilst a uniform constant temperature field applied in horizontal walls. The governing equations of fluid flow are discretized using a finite volume method with a collocated grid arrangement. The numerical results are reported for the effect of Rayleigh number, solid volume fraction and both presence and absence of thermophoresis and Brownian motion effects. The numerical results show that an improvement in heat transfer rate was registered for the whole range of Rayleigh numbers when Brownian and thermophoresis effects are considered.
Keywords: Natural convection; nanofluid; thermophoresis; Brownian motion; cavity.