Analysis of mixed convective-radiative heat transfer in a porous square cavity filled with various nanofluids
Santhosh Nagarajan, R. Sivaraj
Abstract
The present study examines the numerical simulation of mixed convective fluid movement and heat transference within the square cavity with various nanofluids. In this work, the nanofluids are prepared by suspending zinc oxide (ZnO)/silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles into water (H2O)/kerosene (C12H26−C15H32)/ethylene glycol (C2H6O2) base liquids. Features of various nanofluids flow inside cavity are investigated and this kind of studies may be useful in automobile applications and electrical gadgets. The vertical walls of the cavity are hot, the bottom wall is partially cooled, and the top wall is considered to be adiabatic. The Marker-And-Cell (MAC) method is utilized to solve the governing non-dimensional partial differential equations. The impact of heat generation/absorption (Q), nanoparticle volume fraction (φ), Darcy number (Da), Richardson number (Ri), Reynolds number (Re), and the thermal radiation parameter (Rd) are scrutinized. The outcomes are displayed informs of streamlines, isotherms, and local and average Nusselt numbers. The comparative study is performed and it finds a good accordance with the literature. As fluid flow and heat transfer are concerned, ZnO-Ethylene Glycol(EG) nanofluid explores the optimum features among the considered nanofluids. When 5% ZnO/SiO2 nanoparticles are suspended into water, compared to SiO2-water nanofluid, ZnO-water nanofluid has more than 10.81% mean rate of heat transmission. Suspension of 5% ZnO in water/kerosene/EG has the tendency to enhance the mean heat transfer rates of water/kerosene/EG up to 13.68%/10.97%/7.80%, respectively. The highest mean heat transfer rate is attained when the cavity’s aspect ratio is fixed as 1:1.