Numerical Study on Effect of Volume Fraction of Nanoparticles on Rayleigh-Bernard Convection in Different Enclosures

Abstract

Numerical investigations of Rayleigh-Bernard convection in enclosures of different modified bottom and top surfaces filled with Au-Water Nanofluid with different volume fractions are presented. This paper describes a numerical predication of heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside enclosures bounded by modified bottom and top surfaces and two periodic straight vertical walls. Simulations are carried out for a Rayleigh number of 6×104 and two aspect ratios (0.25 & 0.5) with working fluid as Au-Water Nanofluid and The same analyses are performed with the Nanofluid having Au nanoparticles of same size and different volume fraction of φ = 5%, 10%, 15% and 20 % in order to see the effect of Nanofluid volume fraction on heat transfer. The Boussinesq approximation is used in order to take density change effect in the governing equations. The study investigates the effect of the nanoparticles volume fraction, and the aspect ratio on the heat transfer. The results are presented in terms of isotherms, streamlines local and average surface Nusselt numbers. Results show that the flow and isotherms are affected by the geometry shape and by the presence of nanoparticles with different volume fractions. It is also shown that for a fixed value of aspect ratio, the convective heat transfer is decreased for the increase in volume fraction of Nanofluid.