Numerical Simulation of Mixed Convection in a Porous Medium Filled with Water/Al2O3 Nanofluid

The present work encloses the application of a Brinkman-extended Darcy model in a problem concerning mixed convection in a lid-driven porous cavity using nanofluids. The transport equations are solved numerically by the finite volume method on a co-located grid arrangement using the Quadratic Upstream Interpolation for Convective Kinematics (QUICK) scheme. The effects of governing parameters, namely, Grashof number (Gr), Darcy number (Da), and solid volume fraction (.), on the streamlines and the isotherms are studied. The present results are validated by favorable comparisons with previously published results and are in good agreement with them. The present numerical results show that the addition of nanoparticles to a base fluid has produced an augmentation of the heat transfer coefficient and it is found to increase significantly with an increase of the particle volume concentration. It is observed from the results that at the higher value of the Grashof number (Gr = 10(4)), the average Nusselt number increases with an increase in the Darcy number for a constant solid volume fraction. The detailed results are reported by means of streamlines, isotherms, and Nusselt numbers. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.