NUMERICAL ANALYSIS ON LAMINAR NATURAL

CONVECTION IN A SQUARE CAVITY WITH DIFFERENT

NANOFLUIDS
Silva, M. C.1, Novelli, A. D. P.

Instituto Federal de Educao, Cincia e Tecnologia de So Paulo, R. Dicono Jair de Oliveira,

1005, Piracicaba, Brazil
e-mail: macsilva@ifsp.edu.br1, adpnovelli@ifsp.edu.br

Abstract: This work describes the numerical study of the laminar natural convection of two-
dimensional square cavity filled with different nanofluids (Cu/Water, Al2O 3/Ethylene Glycol). The
vertical walls are heated with different tempeatures, while the horizontal ones are insulated. The
governing equations are solved numerically using the finite volume technique, Power-Law scheme
of interpolation and the SIMPLE algorithm for solving the pressure-velocity coupling. The
Rayleigh number are ranged from 103 to 106. The average Nusselt number results were obtained, as
well as the streamlines and isotherms of the analyzed cases.

Keywords: Natural Convection, Numerical Methods, Nanofluids.

Introduction

The study of natural convection in enclosures impinges many applications in technology.

The most known are in solar collectors, cooling of electronic equipment, nuclear reactors and
building insulation. The latest research shows interest in fluids other than air and water. One of
these interests is nanofluids. Basak and Chamka [1] studied the thermal characteristics of water and
various nanofluids limited within square cavity with different heating patterns of walls. It was
observed that heatlines with larger heat functions values for nanofluids agreed with heatlines with
smaller heat function values for water at walls. Rashidi et al. (2014) evaluated the effect of the
heterogeneous heating on the natural convection of the Al2O3 nanofluid inside a square cavity. The
results show that for high Rayleigh number, the heat transfer is minimal where the heat flux in the
proximity of adiabatic walls is smallest, while the heat flux near the cold walls is biggest.
This work has a main goal to obtain the Nusselt number for the problem of free convection
in a square cavity where one vertical wall is a hot wall of constant temperature and the other one is
a cold wall of a constant temperature, and both the upper and lower walls are insulated. Two
different nanofluids (Cu/Water, Al2O3/Ethylene Glycol) were studied. The concentration of the
particles was 5% in volume and laminar flow regime were adopted.

Computational Procedure
The geometry analysed in this work is shown in Fig. 1. The thermo-physical properties of the
nanofluids are assumed to be constant except for the density in the buoyancy force term.
The governing equations in a dimensionless form for steady-state laminar, incompressible and two-
dimensional fluid flow are:

(1)

(2)
 (3)

(4)

Where

(5)

The Rayleigh number and the Prandtl number are:

(6)

The boundary conditions for Eqs. (1)-(4) are:

- on the hot wall: U = V = 0, = 1
- on the cold wall: U = V = 0, = 0
- on the insulated walls: U = V = 0, /X = 0

The governing equations were approximated numerically using the technique of finite volume
(Patankar [2]).

The physical properties of the nanofluids are obtained by the following equations, and Tab. 1
summarizes the values used in the present work. Hence:

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

The model of Yu and Choi [3] was resorted for the thermal conductivity of nanofluid.

Table 1 Thermophysical Properties

Property Ethylen Glycol Water Cu Al2O3
3
(kg/m ) 1132 997.1 8933 3970
Cp (J/kgK) 2349 4180 385 765
K (W/mK) 0.258 0.613 400 40
(mPas) 15.1 0.891 - -
107 (m2/s) 0.97 1.47 131.7
(K-1) 0.00057 0.00021 0.000024
Pr 137.48 6.07 - -

The local Nusselt number of the hot wall is defined as:

 (11)

The thermals conductivity h is obtained by the equation below:

(12)

Finally, the dimensionless form of the Nusselt number is:

(13)

The average Nusselt number is calculated as follows:

(14)

An 80 x 80 uniform grid performed the results for this work, ensuring a grid independence for the
solutions.

Results and Discussion

Xxxxx
A numerical analysis was accomplished on laminar natural convection in a square cavity.
(a)
(b)

Figure 1: xxx. (a) xxx; (b) xxx.

Table 1 xxx.
Condition 1 Condition 2 Condition 3
Sample 1 111 333 555
Sample 2 222 444 666

Conclusions
Xxxxxx

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by ...

References

[1] T. Basak, A. J. Chamka, Heatline Analysis on Natural Convection for Nanofluids Confined
within Square Cavities with Various Thermal Boundary Conditions, International Journal of Heat
and Mass Transfer, 2012, 55, pp. 5526-5543.
[2] S. V. Patankar, Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow, Hemisphere Washington, DC, 1980.
[3] Rashidi, I., Mahian, O., Lorenzini, G., Bisemi, C., Wongwises, S., Natural Convection of
Al2O3/water nanofluid in a square cavity: effects of heterogeneous heating, International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer, 2014, Vol. 74, pp. 391-402.
[3] W. Yu, S. U. S. Choi, The Role of Interfacial Layer in the Enhanced Thermal Conductivity of
Nanofluids: A Renovated Maxwell Model, Journal of Nanoparticles Research, 2003, vol 5, pp. 167-
171.

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