TY - JOUR
TI - Effects of circular corners and aspect-ratio on entropy generation due to natural convection of nanofluid flows in rectangular cavities
AU - Salari Mahmoud
AU - Mohammadtabar Ali
AU - Mohammadtabar Mohammad
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2015
VL - 19
IS - 5
SP - 1621
EP - 1632
PT - Article
AB - In this paper, entropy generation induced by natural convection of cu-water  nanofluid in rectangular cavities with different circular corners and  different aspect-ratios were numerically investigated. The governing  equations were solved using a finite volume approach and the SIMPLE algorithm  was used to couple the pressure and velocity fields. The results showed that  the total entropy generation increased with the increase of Rayleigh number,  irreversibility coefficient, aspect ratio or solid volume fraction while it  decreased with the increase of the corner radius. It should be noted that the  best way for minimizing entropy generation is decreasing Rayleigh number.  This is the first priority for minimizing entropy generation. The other  parameters such as radius, volume fraction, etc are placed on the second  priority. However, Bejan number had an inverse trend compared with total  entropy generation. As an exception, Bejan number and total entropy number  had the same trend whenever solid volume fraction increased. Moreover,  Nusselt number increased as Rayleigh number, solid volume fraction or aspect  ratio increased whereas it decreases with the increase of corner radius.