CFD simulation of laminar free convection flows of nanofluids in a cubical enclosure

Understanding the physics behind heat transfer within an enclosure especially in the natural convection domain has many important applications. The heat transfer performance of nanofluids inside a cubical enclosure with an internal heat source fixed on the side-wall of the enclosure will be investigated under natural convection flow condition in this paper. A three-dimensional two-phase mixture model will be developed and validated for this investigation. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations will be undergone using an in-house solver developed on simplified marker and cell (SMAC) algorithm within a collocated grid by finite difference method. The time dependent flow and characteristics of heat transfer for nanofluids will be investigated with pure water as the base fluid dispersed with different nanoparticles. In addition, parametric studies will also be performed by varying the particle volume concentrations (0%<= Phi <= 3%), particle diameters (25 nm <= D-p <= 50 nm) and Grashof numbers (10(3) <= Gr <= 10(6)). The particle volume concentration when increased in a nanofluid gives more affinity to heat absorption. Velocity increase of particles leads to the efficient mixing of nanofluid and so an increase in Grashof number also leads to heat transfer enhancement. Decrease in particle diameter is the final parameter which shows a heat transfer increase. (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Second International Conference on Sustainable Energy Solutions for a Better Tomorrow.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the heat transfer performance of nanofluids inside a cubical enclosure under natural convection flow condition. A three-dimensional two-phase mixture model is developed and validated for this investigation. The effects of particle volume concentration, particle diameter, and Grashof number on heat transfer are studied.