Meshfree Simulation of Thermodiffusion Effects in a Nanofluid Filled Triangular Enclosure with Slanting Wavy Wall with Application to Greenhouse Solar Collector

Abstract

A computational study of heat transfer and buoyancy driven fluid flow in nanofluid filled triangular enclosure with slanting wavy wall has been carried out. A two phase model for nanofluid with Brownian motion and Thermophoresis, the two essential slip mechanisms responsible for enhancing heat transfer in nanofluid are considered. The side and bottom wall of the cavity are maintained at a temperature ( $$T_{H}$$ ) higher than that of wavy wall temperature ( $$T_{C}$$ ). Element Free Galerkin Method with penalty approach is used to solve the problem with parameters such as Rayleigh number (Ra), amplitude of wavy wall (A), Thermophoresis parameter (Nt) and Brownian motion parameter (Nb). The effects of the above parameter on heat transfer rate (Nusselt number) and mass transfer rate (nanofluid Sherwood number) are presented. It is observed that heat transfer rate significantly depends upon the Ra, Nt and Nb but not so much on A. The knowledge about heat transfer can be used to effectively control the temperature (both in winters and summers) inside a greenhouse. One of the industrial applications of the present problem thus, lies in the design of greenhouse solar collector, and has been discussed in detail in present work.