Natural Convection in a Non-Darcy Porous Cavity Filled with Cu-Water Nanofluid Using the Characteristic-Based Split Procedure in Finite-Element Method

Natural convection of Cu-water nanofluid in a differentially heated non-Darcy porous cavity was numerically investigated by using the characteristic-based split algorithm in finite element method. Effects of the various thermophysical parameters and the solid volume fraction of nanoparticle on heat transfer and fluid flow in different flow regimes were demonstrated. Although the addition of nanoparticles in the porous medium generally resulted in the higher average Nusselt number in most flow regimes, the average Nusselt number appears to decrease or stay nearly the same with increased solid volume fraction in Darcy flow regime at a high Rayleigh number and low Darcy number.