TY - JOUR
TI - Free convection of a nanofluid in a square cavity with a heat source on the bottom wall and partially cooled from sides
AU - Arani Ali Akbar Abbasian
AU - Mahmoodi Mostafa
AU - Sebdani Saeed Mazrouei
AU - Akbari Mohammad Ali
AU - Nazari Saeed
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2014
VL - 18
IS - 12
SP - 283
EP - 300
PT - Article
AB - The problem of free convection fluid flow and heat transfer in a square  cavity with a flush mounted heat source on its bottom wall and two heat  sinks on its vertical side walls has been investigated numerically. Via  changing the location of the heat sinks, six different arrangements have  been generated. The cavity was filled with Cu-water nanofluid. The governing  equations were discretized using the finite volume method and SIMPLER  algorithm. Using the developed code, a parametric study was undertaken, and  effects of Rayleigh number, arrangements of the heat sinks and volume  fraction of the nanoparticles on fluid flow and heat transfer inside the  cavity were investigated. Also for the middle-middle heat sinks arrangement,  capability of five different water based nanofluids on enhancement of the  rate of heat transfer was examined and compared. From the obtained results  it was found that the average Nusselt number, for all six different  arrangements of the heat sinks, was an increasing function of the Rayleigh  number and the volume fraction of the nanoparticles. Also it was found that  at high Rayleigh numbers, maximum and minimum average Nusselt number  occurred for middle-middle and top-bottom arrangement, respectively.  Moreover it was found that for the middle-middle arrangement, at high  Rayleigh numbers, maximum and minimum rate of heat transfer was obtained by  Cu-water and TiO2-water nanofluids respectively.