Numerical investigation of hydrodynamic nanofluid convective flow in a porous enclosure

Abstract

In this study, the steady state behavior of natural convection transport on a nanofluid in square enclosure was studied. The model equations were solved using Comsol Multiphysics; a solver for partial differential Navier–Stokes equations based on a two-dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) over a range of Rayleigh numbers (103-106). Impact of the Rayleigh Number, the Darcy Number, the porosity, the solid fraction volume of porous medium and the nanoparticle concentration on natural convection are depicted. Obtained Results reveal that convection mode increases with rise of Rayleigh number. The simulated results were compared with other numerical data from the literature, which indicate that good agreement is founded.

Keywords

• Free convection
• Hartmann number
• Volume fraction
• Nusselt number