Heat Transfer Enhancement of Nanofluids in a Lid-Driven Triangular Enclosure having a Discrete Heater

Abstract

In the present study, the behaviour of nanofluids is investigated numerically in a lid-driven triangular enclosure which has a partially heated on bottom side to gain insight into convective recirculation and flow processes induced by a nanofluid. The present model is developed to examine the behaviour of nanofluids taking into account the heater length. Fluid mechanics and conjugate heat transfer, described in terms of continuity, linear momentum and energy equations, were predicted by using the Galerkin finite element method. Comparisons with previously published work on the basis of special cases are performed and found to be in excellent agreement. Numerical results are obtained for a wide range of parameters such as the Richardson number, and heater length. Copper-water nanofluids is used with Prandtl number, Pr = 6.2. The streamlines, isotherm plots and the variation of the average Nusselt number at the hot surface as well as average fluid temperature in the enclosure is presented and discussed in detailed.