Natural convection of water-based nanofluids in an inclined enclosure with a heat source

Abstract

This study investigates natural convection heat transfer of water-based nanofluids in an inclined square enclosure where the left vertical side is heated with a constant heat flux, the right side is cooled, and the other sides are kept adiabatic. The governing equations are solved using polynomial differential quadrature (PDQ) method. Calculations were performed for inclination angles from 0° to 90°, solid volume fractions ranging from 0% to 20%, constant heat flux heaters of lengths 0.25, 0.50 and 1.0, and a Rayleigh number varying from 10 4 to 10 6. The ratio of the nanolayer thickness to the original particle radius is kept at a constant value of 0.1. The heat source is placed at the center of the left wall. Five types of nanoparticles are taken into consideration: Cu, Ag, CuO, Al 2O 3, and TiO 2. The results show that the average heat transfer rate increases significantly as particle volume fraction and Rayleigh number increase. The results also show that the length of the heater is also an important parameter affecting the flow and temperature fields. The average heat transfer decreases with an increase in the length of the heater. As the heater length is increased, the average heat transfer rate starts to decrease for a smaller inclination angle (it starts to decrease with inclination at 90° for ɛ = 0.25, 60° for ɛ = 0.50, 45° for ɛ = 1.0, respectively).