ISPH simulations of natural convection flow in E-enclosure filled with a nanofluid including homogeneous/heterogeneous porous media and solid particles

In this paper, the unsteady convective nanofluid flow in a novel geometry (E-enclosure) partially filled by a homogeneous/heterogeneous porous medium is numerically investigated using incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (ISPH) method. The major contribution of the work is the introduction of multi-phase flows including solid-fluid particles through different porous media in natural convection of a nanofluid using stable scheme of ISPH method. The E-enclosure is partially saturated by a homogeneous/heterogeneous porous medium in the right area. The solid particles are settled in the left area of the E-enclosure. The inner solid particles are carrying three different thermal conditions including conducting solid particles, hot solid particles and cold solid particles. The current geometry of E-enclosure can be applied in analysis the thermophysical behaviors of the isothermal building. ISPH method is used to solve the dimensionless governing equations. Six cases based on the homogeneous/ heterogeneous properties were investigated and the other controlling parameters are the nanoparticles volume fraction phi(1% <= phi <= 5%), the Rayliegh number Ra(10(3) <= Ra <= 10(5)) and the Darcy number Da (10(-2) <= Da <= 10(-5)). The obtained results revealed that the case of the hot solid particles gives a high intensity of the fluid flow and temperature distributions inside E-enclosure. Moreover, the average Nusselt number reaches the maximum value at the case of a horizontal heterogeneous porous medium. Regardless the different cases of the porous media, an increase on the Rayleigh number enhances the rate of heat transfer. Further, case 6 (horizontal heterogeneous porous media for all of the right-area) increases the thermal boundary layers near to the isothermal walls and consequently, the average Nusselt number is supported. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.