Buoyancy-driven heat transfer in nanofluid-filled trapezoidal enclosure with variable thermal conductivity and viscosity

• Main Authors: Roslan, R., Saleh, H., Hashim, I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2011
• Subjects: T Technology (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/7976/1/J3979_d3d765b416fc9661b090336575009329.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/7976/; https://doi.org/ 10.1080/10407782.2011.616778
• Institution: Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Heat transfer performance utilizing nanofluids in a trapezoidal enclosure is investigated taking into account variable thermal conductivity and viscosity. Transport equations are modelled by a stream-vorticity formulation, and are solved numerically by the finite differ�ence method. The effects of the Rayleigh number, base angle, volume fraction, and size of nanoparticles on flow and temperature patterns as well as the heat transfer rate are pre�sented. We found that the effect of the viscosity was more dominant than the thermal con�ductivity, and there is almost no improvement in heat transfer performance utilizing nanofluids.