Open Access

ARTICLE

Natural Convection in a Square Cavity Filled with Nanofluids

Abd el malik Bouchoucha^1,2, Rachid Bessaïh¹

1 LEAP Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Sciences Technology, University Frères Mentouri-Constantine, Route de Ain El. Bey, Constantine 25000, Algeria.
2 Email: bouchoucha.malik@gmail.com, Phone/Fax: +21331 811308

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2015, 11(3), 279-300. https://doi.org/10.3970/fdmp.2015.011.279

Abstract

The present paper deals with a numerical study of natural convection in a square cavity filled with a nanofluid. The left and right vertical walls of the cavity are maintained at a local temperature T_h (heat source) and a local cold temperature T_C, respectively. Horizontal walls are assumed to be adiabatic. The governing equations are discretized by using the finite volume method and solved by the SIMPLER algorithm. Our computer fortran code is validated through comparison with numerical results found in the literature. Results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, local and average Nusselt numbers for the Rayleigh number (10³ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶), solid volume fraction of nanoparticles (0 ≤ Ø ≤ 0.10), type of nanofluids (Cu, Ag, Al₂O₃ and TiO₂), and dimensionless length of the heat source (0.50 ≤ B ≤ 1).

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Keywords

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