Finite element analysis of natural convective heat transfer in a porous square cavity filled with nanofluids in the presence of thermal radiation

Free convection heat transfer in a square cavity filled with nanofluid-saturated porous medium with the effects of different nanoparticles in the presence of thermal radiation is investigated in this paper. The top and bottom horizontal walls of cavity are considered adiabatic, while the vertical walls are kept at constant temperatures. The governing partial differential equations are solved by finite element method of Galerkin weighted residual scheme. Numerical results are obtained for different values of the Rayleigh number, radiation parameter and nanofluid volume fraction. The overall investigation of variation of streamlines, isotherms and Nusselt numbers is presented graphically. To examine the accuracy, the present results are compared with the available results.