Lattice Boltzmann simulation of 3-dimensional natural convection heat transfer of CuO/water nanofluids

Abstract

The present study investigated fluid flow and natural convection heat transfer in an enclosure embedded with isothermal cylinder. The purpose was to simulate the three-dimensional natural convection by thermal lattice Boltzmann method based on the D3Q19 model. The effects of suspended nanoparticles on the fluid flow and heat transfer analysis have been investigated for different parameters such as particle volume fraction, particle diameters, and geometry aspect ratio. It is seen that flow behaviors and the average rate of heat transfer in terms of the Nusselt number (Nu) are effectively changed with different controlling parameters such as particle volume fraction (5 % ≤ φ ≤ 10 %), particle diameter (d p = 10 nm to 30 nm) and aspect ratio (0.5 ≤ AR ≤ 2) with fixed Rayleigh number, Ra = 105. The present results give a good approximation for choosing an effective parameter to design a thermal system.